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Jesus  Christ  and  the  world 
today 


JESUS    CHRIST,  AND 
THE  WORLD  TODAY 

GRACE  HUTCHINS 

AND 
ANNA  ROCHESTER 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE 


WORLD  TODA$T 

BY 

GRACE  HUTCHIN! 

AND 

ANNA  ROCHESTER 


Logical  s^ 


NEW  ^gjff   YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1922, 
BY  GEORGE  H.   DORAN  COMPANY 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE 
WORLD  TODAY.     II 

PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA 


PREFACE 

The  aim  of  these  studies  is  to  seek  in  and 
through  the  mind  and  experience  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  way  of  life  for  individuals,  churches,  classes, 
and  nations  that  shall  lead  toward  a  solution  of 
our  present  problems.  We  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  hope  of  the  world ;  the  studies  assume 
this  belief  and  attempt  to  analyze  its  implications 
for  the  world  today.  They  do  not  attempt,  how- 
ever, to  present  an  economic  or  political  program. 
We  believe  that  such  programs  are  very  definitely 
the  concern  of  Christians,  but  intelligent  discus- 
sion of  programs  must  follow  a  clear  analysis  of 
our  personal  share  in  social  wrongs  and  of  the 
kind  of  relationships  we  should  try  to  express  in 
our  economic  and  political  life. 

Just  as  the  preparation  of  these  studies  was 
begun,  The  Untried  Door,  by  the  Reverend  Rich- 
ard Roberts,  came  to  us.  We  read  it  with  a  deep 
sense  of  agreement  and  gratitude.  We  must  ex- 
press our  indebtedness,  also,  to  the  late  Walter 
Rauschenbusch  whose  Christianity  and  the  Social 
Crisis  translated  for  us  several  years  ago  the 
hope  of  the  Kingdom  into  terms  of  modern  life. 

G.  H. 
A.  R. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Preface      v 

CHAPTER 

I     The  Hope 11 

II    With  the  Family  at  Nazareth  ...  32 

III  In  the  Community 47 

IV  Principles  and  Qualities 66 

V    The  Conflict 82 

VI    Intercession 101 

VII    The  Measure  of  Success      ....  115 

VIII     The  Risen  Life 127 

Appendix  :  Suggestions  for  Study  Groups  145 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE 
WORLD  TODAY 


Chapter  One 
THE  HOPE 

A  small  country,  engrossed  in  its  own  affairs 
and  primitive  in  its  economic  structure,  separated 
from  us  by  nineteen  centuries  of  shifting  empire 
and  changing  civilization,  the  Palestine  in  which 
Jesus  spent  the  years  of  his  earthly  life,  faced, 
in  miniature,  certain  problems  that  today  axe 
shaking  the  world.  Our  essential  kinship  with  the 
people  among  whom  Jesus  lived  is  perhaps  ob- 
scured by  our  differences  in  form,  with  the  para- 
phernalia of  modern  comfort,  the  machinery  of 
large  scale  production  and  intercommunication, 
the  subways  and  office  buildings  and  factories  and 
schools  and  tenements  and  museums  and  palaces 
of  a  modern  city.  We  recognize,  of  course,  a  cer- 
tain identity  of  individual  sins.  We  do  not  so 
easily  see  the  identity  of  the  evils  in  their  social 
structure  and  in  our  own. 

Such  problems  as  child  labor  in  factories,  bad 

housing  in  congested  districts,  industrial  accidents 

and  occupational  diseases,  industrial  employment 

of  married  women  whose  children  need  them  at 

11 


12      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

home — to  mention  only  a  few  among  many — have 
so  clear  a  relation  to  the  age  of  machine  industry 
that  obviously  they  had  no  parallel  in  Palestine. 
But  these  are  all  corollaries  of  the  great  funda- 
mental problem  of  poverty.  And  poverty  and 
riches  were  distinct  in  Palestine. 

Again,  the  conflicts  between  labor  and  capital, 
and  between  subject  nations  and  an  imperial  over- 
lord, such  disputes  as  that  between  American  oil 
companies  and  the  Mexican  government,  and  be- 
tween Japan  and  China  over  the  control  of  Shan- 
tung, even  the  antagonisms  that  made  possible  the 
Great  War,  have  their  roots  in  a  desire  for  domi- 
nation. Even  so,  in  Palestine,  power  was  held 
by  a  few  who  were  watchful  against  losing  it 
and  who  used  violence  and  corruption  to  main- 
tain it. 

Within  America,  race  antagonisms  are  evi- 
denced by  our  attitude  towards  the  uneducated 
immigrant,  by  the  white  man's  sense  of  superi- 
ority to  the  Negro,  expressed  in  a  hundred  ways 
ranging  from  benevolent  leadership  to  mob  tor- 
ture, and  by  the  Negro 's  increasingly  bitter  hatred 
for  the  white  race.  So  during  the  centuries  pre- 
ceding the  birth  of  Jesus  the  race  pride  of  the 
Jews  had  kept  them  distinct  from  all  others  and 
had  led  to  war  and  continuing  enmity  with  the 
Samaritans. 

Before  we  attempt  to  trace  the  experience  of 
Jesus  and  the  way  in  which  He  approached  the 
problems  of  Palestine,  let  us  picture  as  well  as  we 
can  the  form  of  the  problems  Jesus  faced,  keep- 
ing in  mind  the  identical  roots  of  the  evils  of  his 


THE  HOPE  13 

day  and  of  our  own :  riches  and  poverty,  control  of 
power,  and  pride  of  race. 

Consider  first  some  of  the  rich  men  and  the 
sources  of  riches  among  the  Jews  that  appear  in 
the  gospel  pages.  There  was  the  rich  land-owner 
with  his  bailiff  and  under-servants,1  and  the  other 
rich  land-owner  who  wanted  to  rebuild  his  barns.2 
There  were  the  men  with  a  position  to  maintain 
which  required  attention  to  the  niceties  of  dress.3 
There  were  bankers  and  money-changers  in  the 
Temple  courts,4  and  money-lending  as  a  profitable 
occupation  was  common  enough  to  be  used  as  an 
illustration  in  the  parables  of  Jesus.  Others  be- 
sides money-lenders — the  owner  of  a  vineyard,  for 
example — were  men  of  substance  who  could  leave 
their  business  or  their  estate  to  the  care  of  sub- 
ordinates 5  and  have  their  income  continue  while 
they  traveled  or  spent  the  season  at  Jerusalem. 
Merchants  bought  and  sold,  and  their  traffic  was 
sometimes  in  luxuries  that  only  the  wealthy  could 
buy.6  There  were  those  who  collected  their  pos- 
sessions in  private  houses.7  The  extortion  of  the 
Pharisees  and  their  devouring  of  widows'  houses 
are  not  explicitly  described,  but  their  wealth  was 
such  that  even  lovers  of  money 8  could  make  large 
contributions  without  inconvience  to  themselves. 
The  high  priest  lived  in  a  mansion  with  a  court- 
yard and  hired  servants.  The  anger  of  the  priests 
when  Jesus  cleared  the  courts  of  the  money- 
changers and  the  dealers  in  animals 9  suggests 

iMatt.  24:45-51,  Luke  12:16-18;  2  Matt.  11:8;  3  Mark  11: 
15-19;  4  Matt.  25:14-30;  5  Mark  12:1-12;  e  Matt.  13:45-46; 
7  Matt.  6:  19;  s  Mark  12:41-44.     »  Mark  11:  15-19. 


14      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

that  the  priests  were  profiting  from  the  business. 
(A  contemporary  protest  in  the  Jewish  Talmud 
has  come  down  to  us  against  the  amount  of  the 
Temple  revenue  that  found  its  way  into  the  pock- 
ets of  the  priests.) 

The  social  differences  resulting  from,  wealth 
may  have  been  more  marked  in  Jerusalem  than 
among  the  Jews  in  the  country  of  Judea  or  in  Gali- 
lee, but  riches  and  the  distinction  between  rich 
and  poor  were  evidently  a  commonplace  in  all  the 
regions  where  Jesus  taught.  The  educated  look 
down  on  the  unlettered;  the  rulers  of  the  syna- 
gogue stand  out  from  the  multitude.  There  are 
chief  seats  and  titles  of  honor,  with  an  aristocracy 
of  birth  in  the  priestly  families  and  an  aristocracy 
of  learning  among  scribes  and  Pharisees.  Theo- 
retically any  Jew  might  rise  to  distinction  in 
scholarship,  but  practically — according  to  the 
teacher  Ben  Sira — this  was  possible  only  to  a  man 
of  means.  And  wealth  by  itself  seems  to  have 
brought  social  position,  except  that  no  Jewish 
gentleman  might  be  a  tax-collector  for  the  Bo- 
mans.  Apart  from  the  slaves  and  the  beggars  who 
stand  out  so  prominently  in  the  picture  of  the 
Palestine  in  which  Jesus  lived,  there  were  thou- 
sands of  poor  working  people — craftsmen  of  all 
sorts,  fishermen,  shepherds,  farmers  and  vine- 
dressers, hired  servants  and  day  laborers — who 
had  neither  slaves  nor  servants  to  wash  their  feet 
or  prepare  their  meals  or  sweep  their  houses  or 
till  their  soil.  Even  in  the  simple  agricultural  life 
of  Palestine  the  difference  between  riches  and 
poverty  was  so  well  recognized  that  the  Hebrew 


THE  HOPE  15 

law  provided  for  substitute  offerings  to  be  made 
by  the  poor  man  who  could  not  afford  the  animal 
required  from  the  well-to-do.  Every  Jewish  boy 
was  taught  to  work  with  his  hands,  and  manual 
labor  was  more  highly  regarded  among  the  Jews 
than  among  the  Greeks  or  the  Romans.  But  the 
men  who  did  manual  work  appear  in  the  gospels 
among  those  who  lived  in  simplicity  and  made 
the  offerings  of  the  poor.  The  wealthy  were  using 
the  work  of  others — usually  slaves,  but  not  always 
— or  were  profiting  from  banking  or  commerce. 

And  wealth  brought  power.  The  slave  was  not 
the  only  Jew  who  was  subject  to  others.  Within 
the  Jewish  community  and  apart  from  the  domi- 
nation of  Rome,  a  minority  controlled  the  people* 
The  fact  that  every  boy  learned  a  trade  did  not 
by  itself  ensure  his  security.  We  read  in  the  gos- 
pels of  the  men  standing  idle  in  the  market  place  * 
waiting  to  be  employed,  and  Josephus  tells  us  that 
one  reason  why  Herod  the  tetrarch  set  50,000  men 
to  work  on  various  building  projects  was  that 
great  numbers  were  unemployed.2  When  they 
were  hired,  the  workers  must  do  the  employer's 
bidding  and  accept  his  conditions. 

In  the  organization  of  the  Jewish  church  the 
common  people  were  subject  to  the  priestly  caste 
and  were  exploited  by  them.  They  were  taxed 
heavily  for  the  support  of  the  Temple  and  the 
priests,  and  any  one  who  refused  to  pay  his  Tem- 
ple tax  became  a  " sinner' '  and  an  outcast.    When 

iMatt.  20:  1-16. 

2  Mathews,  Shatter.  History  of  Neiv  Testament  Times  v& 
Palestine,  p.   124. 


16      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  people  went  to  the  Temple  they  were  made  to 
pay  more  than  a  fair  price  for  the  changing  of 
their  coins  and  the  purchase  of  their  sacrifices. 

The  administration  of  justice  also  lay  with  those 
who  had  wealth  and  social  position.  The  San- 
hedrin,  to  which  the  Eomans  allowed  supreme 
jurisdiction  in  all  matters  peculiar  to  the  Hebrew 
law  and  usually  in  civil  cases  or  in  criminal  cases 
not  subject  to  death  penalty,  was  composed  of 
priests  and  of  scribes  learned  in  the  law  and  of 
other  rulers  and  "elders"  representing  the  two 
parties  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees.  The  irregu- 
larities to  which  they  would  descend  when  the  is- 
sue was  sharp  between  the  people  and  themselves 
are  illustrated  by  their  conduct  of  the  trial  of 
Jesus. 

The  Eoman  dominion  also  fell  most  heavily  on 
the  poor.  Customs  duties  and  taxes  on  sales  were 
added  to  direct  taxation.  These  indirect  taxes, 
farmed  out  to  contractors  and  by  contractors 
farmed  out  to  collectors  (publicans)  invited  graft 
and  extortion,  and  were  acutely  oppressive.  Con- 
temporary history  records  that  in  one  year  the 
people  of  Asia  had  to  pay  the  Eoman  taxes  three 
times  over.  The  Eoman  method  of  maintaining 
power  may  be  favorably  compared  to  the  methods 
of  oriental  empires  that  preceded  Eome,  but  it 
still  included  a  free  use  of  violence.  Eome  stood 
by  while  King  Herod  disposed  of  possible  rivals 
by  killing  all  male  infants  in  a  certain  district, 
and  a  little  later  Pontius  Pilate  the  procurator 
(who  was  so  well  regarded  by  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment that  he  held  his  office  for  ten  years)  killed 


THE  HOPE  17 

a  number  of  Galileans  who  had  come  up  to  Jeru- 
salem and  were  suspected  of  sedition.  Officials  of 
the  empire  thought  it  expedient  to  keep  down  un- 
rest by  executions  which  often  took  the  form  of 
crucifixion.  False  accusations  and  extortion  vio- 
lently enforced  were  sufficiently  common  to  be  re- 
buked by  John  the  Baptist  when  he  saw  Eoman 
soldiers  in  the  crowd  that  came  to  hear  him. 

Practically  all  Jews  resented  subjection  to  the 
heathen  Eomans.  The  Maccabean  revolt  against 
Syria  and  the  short  period  of  independence  when 
prosperity  and  national  prestige  had  reached  their 
highest  point  since  the  days  of  Solomon  had  inten- 
sified racial  pride.  But  in  the  different  classes 
among  the  Jews  this  racial  pride  was  mingled  with 
various  other  elements.  Parties  which  united  in 
believing  that  the  Jews  were  a  superior  race  and 
that  Jehovah  would  ultimately  establish  their  king- 
dom  differed  profoundly  in  their  immediate  de- 
sires and  programs.  The  sense  of  living  in  a 
special  covenant  with  Jehovah  had  for  generations 
been  inculcated  in  every  Jewish  child.  With  the 
Pharisees  this  had  developed  into  a  desire  for  com- 
plete separation  from  the  Gentile  world,  and  their 
resentment  against  Rome  was  fed  from  the  two 
springs  of  national  pride  and  religious  pride.  In 
the  main,  however,  the  Pharisees  were  not  inclined 
to  violent  revolt.  They  were  free  to  follow  the 
Law  without  interference ;  the  Sanhedrin,  in  which 
at  the  time  of  Jesus'  public  life  the  Pharisees 
were  the  majority  party,  had  enough  power  to 
satisfy  the  instinct  for  domination,  and  materially 
they  prospered  in  spite  of  Roman  taxes.    Possibly 


18      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

the  sense  of  martyrdom  under  such  pleasant  cir- 
cumstances enhanced  their  self-satisfaction.  The 
Sadducean  party  was  less  concerned  with  religious 
separation  from  the  Gentiles  than  with  increase 
of  political  authority  for  the  priests.  They  had 
even  flirted  with  Hellenism  in  the  past,  and  were 
frankly  worldly  in  their  philosophy.  The  Sad- 
ducean party  included  the  chief  priests  and  many 
of  the  wealthy  conservative  families  whose  sym- 
pathies were  with  the  priestly  class.  The  party 
of  the  Pharisees  was  also  dominated  by  men  of 
wealth,  but  it  included  the  leaders  in  scholarship 
and  piety.  Even  the  best  of  the  Pharisees  had 
little  understanding  of  the  needs  of  the  multitude. 
The  scribes  of  the  Pharisees  were  by  training  and 
by  position  of  the  privileged  class.  The  scribe  was 
not  only  a  religious  leader  but  a  lawyer,  a  judge, 
and  a  scholar.  By  their  education  and  by  their 
rank  as  teachers  or  rabbis  these  lawyers  of  the 
Pharisees  were  separated  from  the  common  peo- 
ple. The  Pharisees'  hope  for  freedom  from  Rome 
was  based  on  faith  in  the  righteous  kingdom  of 
Jehovah,  but  such  present  details  as  the  oppres- 
sion of  poor  Jews  by  the  Romans  and  by  wealthy 
Jews  seem  not  to  have  troubled  them. 

Far  less  important  were  two  other  small  parties, 
the  Cananeans  or  Zealots  who  from  time  to  time 
attempted  to  stir  up  armed  revolt  against  Rome, 
and  the  Herodians  who  openly  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  Herods,  demanding  that  the  kingdom  of 
Herod  the  Great  should  be  reunited  and  have  a 
semblance  of  independence  and  that  the  Roman 
governor  be  withdrawn  from  Judea. 


THE  HOPE  19 

The  multitude  drifted,  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 
They  rose  with  the  Zealots  against  registration 
for  Roman  taxes ;  they  flocked  to  John  the  Baptist 
when  he  preached  equality  of  wealth  and  the  end 
of  extortion,  and  to  Jesus  the  messenger  of  re- 
lease to  the  captives  and  freedom  for  those  whom 
tyranny  has  crushed ;  and  they  shouted  for  Barab- 
bas,  a  leader  of  violent  revolt.  Practically,  na- 
tional independence  had  meant  little  to  a  class 
whose  insecurity  and  poverty  had  been  scarcely 
less  when  they  supported  a  Jewish  high-priestly 
king  than  when  heavy  taxes  were  paid  to  a  heathen 
empire.  During  the  period  of  national  independ- 
ence their  hope  of  a  Messiah  and  a  new  age  of 
righteousness  had  been  deepened  and  intensified. 
Now  Borne  had  become  the  symbol  of  oppression, 
and  their  one  hope  of  justice,  the  promised  king- 
dom of  the  Messiah,  was  essentially  a  national 
hope  which  could  not  be  realized  until  Rome  was 
overthrown. 

But  all  Jews,  rich  and  poor,  the  masters  and 
the  oppressed,  believed  in  the  special  destiny  of 
their  race  and  their  essential  superiority  to  the 
Gentiles.  The  Greeks,  the  "nations''  or  "Gen- 
tiles" (Greek  iOvrf)  represented  all  who  were  not 
Jewish  and  were  therefore  looked  down  upon  as 
foreigners.  This  exclusiveness  made  the  children 
of  Israel  "100%  red-blooded' '  Palestinians.  Even 
in  Galilee  where  many  Gentiles  had  settled  and 
where  Jews  and  Gentiles  mingled  freely  in  the 
daily  life  of  the  community,  the  Jews  betray  their 
racial  pride  in  the  condescension  with  which  they 
advise  Jesus  to  heal  the  centurion's  servant  be- 


20      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

cause  the  centurion  had  built  a  synagogue.  Peter, 
a  Galilean,  had  a  perfectly  definite  change  in  his 
point  of  view  before  he  was  willing  to  heed  the 
call  of  a  Gentile  inquirer. 

In  relation  to  the  Samaritans  the  racial  pride 
had  blossomed  into  positive  dislike  and  antago- 
nism. They  were  a  mixed  stock  of  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, descended  from  Jews  who  had  been  left  in 
Palestine  at  the  time  of  the  Babylonian  captivity 
and  who  had  intermarried  with  the  Gentile  colon- 
ists brought  in  to  settle  the  land.  They  also  treas- 
ured the  Law  and  claimed  Abraham  as  their  fore- 
father, but  since  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  exclusion  of  "foreigners"  from  the  Temple 
in  the  time  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  (fifth  century) 
they  had  been  cut  off  from  intercourse  with  the 
Jews.  It  was  said  with  truth,  Jews  do  not  associ- 
ate, with  Samaritans.  To  get  the  full  force  of  the 
parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  in  these  days,  we 
should  have  to  substitute  for  the  name  Samaritan 
the  name  of  any  race  of  people  with  whom  we  do 
not  care  to  associate.  To  some  of  us  it  would  be 
German ;  to  others,  Japanese  or  Mexican ;  to  some 
of  us  it  would  be  Negro  and  to  others  Jew.  The 
separation  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans 
of  Jesus'  time  was  complete  and  full  of  bitterness 
and  hatred  on  both  sides. 

Below  this  pride  was  there  a  genuine  difference 
between  the  Jewish  people  and  others!  What  was 
their  peculiar  inheritance  1  What  had  they  gained, 
beyond  all  other  peoples,  from  their  sense  of  a 
covenant  with  Jehovah  1  Four  points  stand  out  as 
peculiar  to  the  racial  consciousness  of  the  Jews  in 


THE  HOPE  21 

comparison  with  the  pagan  world  around  them. 
(1)  The  Jews  believed  that  there  was  one  God 
and  that  He  was  intimately  concerned  with  human 
affairs.  (2)  They  did  not  separate  religion  and 
morality.  (3)  Every  Jewish  boy  was  instructed 
in  the  rudiments  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  (4)  They 
had  formulated  the  hope  of  a  new  age  in  which 
righteousness  would  prevail. 

The  monotheism  of  the  Jews  was  not  the  prod- 
uct of  philosophy  but  of  experience.  The  tribal 
Jehovah  of  their  earliest  days,  the  Presence  lim- 
ited to  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  was,  for  the  Jews 
of  the  time  of  Jesus,  the  Creator,  the  King,  the 
Lover  of  Israel,  their  Guide  and  Eedeemer  who 
controlled  the  affairs  of  all  peoples  and  who  would 
ultimately  make  his  own  peculiar  people,  Israel, 
to  triumph,  provided  they  were  faithful  to  Him. 
In  the  school  of  suffering — Egypt,  Babylon,  the 
desolation  of  Palestine — the  nation  had  learned 
when  evil  seemed  most  triumphant  a  stronger, 
more  unshakable  faith  that  Jehovah,  Bighteous- 
ness,  was  essentially  supreme. 

The  essence  of  faithfulness  to  Jehovah  was 
obedience  to  the  Law.  Even  from  the  earliest 
times  Jehovah  had  demanded  a  certain  standard 
of  conduct,  and  the  ritual  of  sacrifice  had  devel- 
oped not  to  propitiate  the  whims  of  a  mysterious 
deity  but  to  atone  for  breaches  in  the  standard  of 
conduct  that  Jehovah  was  understood  to  require. 
Emphasis  had  been  laid  increasingly  on  conduct, 
and  standards  of  right  and  wrong  had  risen. 
Along  with  this,  the  synagogue  had  grown  up  for 
instruction  in  the  Law  and  for  prayer  without 


22      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

animal  sacrifices.  For  the  relation  of  Jews  with 
one  another,  the  fundamentals  of  the  Law  were 
in  advance  of  the  customs  and  standards  of  their 
contemporaries.  In  spite  of  their  exaggeration 
of  details,  their  externalism,  and  the  conspicuous 
neglect  by  many  Pharisees  of  "justice  and  mercy 
and  faith,' '  the  Pharisees  had  rendered  a  great 
service  to  the  world  in  their  deliberate  exaltation 
of  the  Law. 

Theoretically  this  religion  of  the  Law  was  demo- 
cratic. Every  Jewish  boy,  whatever  his  class,  was 
taught  certain  parts  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures, 
and  the  synagogue  worship  was  open  to  all.  It  is 
clear  that  there  was  a  tendency  for  the  well-to-do 
Pharisees  and  the  scholars  who  were  learned  in 
the  great  mass  of  tradition,  which  had  grown  up 
as  interpretation  of  the  Law,  to  dominate  the 
synagogue  and  to  look  with  contempt  on  the  re- 
ligion of  the  common  people.  But  with  the  per- 
spective of  time  and  in  the  light  of  Christ's  life 
and  teaching,  the  rabbinical  tradition  and  the  ex- 
aggerated piety  of  the  Pharisees  seem  less  impor- 
tant in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  people  than  the  uni- 
versal instruction  in  the  rudiments  of  the  sacred 
Law.  The  people  to  whom  Jesus  came  knew  that 
God  cared  what  they  did  and  wanted  them  to  do 
right. 

Moreover,  this  Jewish  faith  included  belief  that 
justice  and  righteousness  would  ultimately  be  ex- 
pressed in  a  new  nation  of  the  Jews.  Their  faith 
in  the  supremacy  of  Jehovah  and  in  his  insistence 
upon  righteousness  had  developed  into  a  faith  that 
Jehovah  was  able  to  make  goodness  triumph  over 


THE  HOPE  23 

evil  in  every  detail  of  national  life.  There  had 
arisen  a  persistent  hope  of  a  renewed  and  trans- 
formed society.  The  new  age  which  was  to  be 
suddenly  and  miraculously  established  was  called 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  This  hope  of  a  new  order 
included  for  some  of  the  apocalyptic1  writers 
the  hope  of  a  Messiah  who  should  enjoy  universal 
dominion.  The  names  given  to  this  leader  who 
should  come  were  "Messiah"  or  "Anointed"  (in 
Greek  xPl^r^) ,  the  "  righteous  king, ' '  the  "  Elect, ' ' 
or  the  ' '  Son  of  Man. ' '  A  great  day  would  usher 
in  everlasting  joy  for  the  righteous,  for  Israel 
and  even,  in  some  of  the  writings,  for  all  mankind. 
Belief  in  this  new  kingdom  had  become  wide- 
spread: Only  to  the  worldly  Sadducees  the  expec- 
tation meant  nothing  since  they  already  had  all 
they  wanted.  To  the  Pharisees,  the  hope  was  col- 
ored with  desire  for  universal  obedience  to  the 
Law,  as  interpreted  by  the  traditions  of  the 
scribes.  To  the  common  people,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  was  more  especially  a  hope  of  deliverance  from 
poverty  and  insecurity.  The  canticles  in  the  first 
two  chapters  of  St.  Luke's  gospel  seem  to  express 
the  Messianic  hope  of  the  devout  poor.  Thus  in 
the  Magnificat: 

He  has  manifested  his  supreme  strength; 
He  has  scattered  those  who  were  haughty  in  the  thoughts 
of  their  hearts; 

i  An  apocalypse  ( Greek  aTOKaXv^cs )  is  a  revelation,  unveil- 
ing, or  uncovering  of  something  that  has  been  hidden.  It  is  a 
technical  term  used  to  denote  a  particular  kind  of  writing  in 
which  the  hope  is  set  forth  that  deliverance  is  coming  and  that 
the  righteous  are  to  wait  for  it  in  patience.  The  hook  of 
Daniel  is  the  great  example  in  the  Old  Testament  of  an  apoca- 
lypse. 


24      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

He  has  cast  monarehs  down  from  their  thrones, 
And  exalted  men  of  low  estate; 
The  hungry  he  has  satisfied  with  choice  gifts, 
And  the  rich  he  has  sent  empty-handed  away. 

In  preparation  for  the  coming  of  this  new  age, 
Elijah,  the  prophet,  embodying  the  spirit  of 
prophecy,  was  to  appear  once  more  in  Israel,  ac- 
cording to  the  popular  belief.  For  more  than 
three  centuries  no  prophet's  voice  had  been  raised 
in  Judea.  The  wise  men  who  wrote  the  Proverbs 
and  Ben  Sira  in  his  writings  had  set  forth  a  high 
social  ideal,  but  not  in  the  ringing  words  of  the 
earlier  reformers.  There  had  been  no  one  to  call 
the  nation  to  repentance.  The  teaching  of  the 
scribes,  that  righteousness  was  obedience  to  the 
traditional  interpretation  of  the  Law,  had  gone 
unchallenged. 

When  John,  with  the  aspect  of  Elijah,  came  out 
from  the  wilderness,  a  social  message  was  once 
more  proclaimed  in  Palestine.  The  religious  lead- 
ers of  the  Jews  had  been,  for  the  most  part,  allied 
with  the  class  of  wealth  and  privilege.  It  was  the 
more  remarkable  that  from  a  priestly  family  came 
one  who  identified  himself  with  the  common  peo- 
ple. John  the  Baptist  was  born  a  priest  and  could 
have  succeeded  his  father  in  the  course  of  Abijah. 
All  the  ease  and  comfort  of  the  priestly  aristoc- 
racy might  have  been  his.  He  could  have  lived  on 
income  from  the  sale  of  animals  in  the  Temple  and 
enjoyed  a  life  secluded  and  protected  from  the 
squalor  and  misery  of  the  world  outside.  But  his 
father  must  have  brought  him  up  with  a  sense  of 


THE  HOPE  25 

vocation  to  a  harder  life.  John  had  been  under  a 
Nazirite  vow  since  his  birth.  In  the  desert  he 
may  have  been  in  contact  with  the  Essenes  who 
lived  in  settlements  near  the  Dead  Sea.  They 
were  "Pharisees  in  the  superlative  degree' '  and 
practiced  the  strictest  asceticism,  but  John  cannot 
be  called  an  Essene.  The  members  of  that  monas- 
tic order  were  vegetarians  while  John  ate  locusts, 
the  food  of  the  poor.  His  choice  of  this  article  of 
food  and  of  honey  from  wild  bees,  of  coarse  clothes 
made  of  camel's  hair  with  a  waist-cloth  of  leather, 
marked  his  identification  with  the  poorest  people. 
In  his  long  hours  of  prayer  and  meditation, 
John  had  seen  clearly  the  injustice  of  oppression 
in  Judea,  and  connected  its  evils  with  the  glorious 
hope  of  a  new  day  which  should  dawn  for  Israel. 
Before  the  people  could  be  ready  for  this  new  day, 
there  must  be  sincere  penitence  for  the  sins  of  the 
nation  and  a  change  of  heart  that  should  mean  a 
turning  toward  justice,  mercy,  and  faithfulness. 
Individuals,  groups  in  society,  and  the  nation  as 
a  whole,  must  share  in  this  repentance.  With  the 
purpose  of  "turning  the  disobedient  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  just,  to  make  a  people  ready  and  pre- 
pared for  the  Lord,"  John  began  his  work.  His 
preaching  was  at  first  so  popular  that  people  of 
all  classes  came  to  hear  him.  It  required  moral 
courage  to  face  the  crowd  with  the  words,  You 
brood  of  vipers,  for  among  them  were  the  Temple 
authorities  and  the  other  religious  leaders  of  the 
nation,  and  they  were  not  accustomed  to  hear  any 
one    question    their    righteousness.      When    the 


26      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

crowds,  stirred  by  the  call  to  repentance,  asked 
what  they  could  do  to  show  their  sincerity  in  the 
new  life,  John  faced  frankly  the  unequal  distribu- 
tion of  possessions.  "Let  every  one  who  pos- 
sesses two  shirts  share  with  him  that  has  none, 
and  let  him  that  has  food  do  likewise. ' '  It  seemed 
to  him  a  simple  and  obvious  necessity  to  do  away 
with  the  glaring  contrast  between  those  who  had 
more  than  they  needed  and  those  who  had  not 
enough  for  subsistence. 

Tax-gatherers  who  had  been  trying  to  gain  as 
much  as  possible  for  the  magnates  who  hired  them 
were  met  with  the  brief  command,  "Never  exact 
more  than  your  fixed  rate."  Eoman  soldiers  ask- 
ing, "And  we,  what  are  we  to  do?"  were  an- 
swered, "Never  extort  money,  never  lay  a  false 
charge,  but  be  content  with  your  pay. ' '  The  evils, 
then,  against  which  John  preached  were  greed  for 
wealth,  oppression  of  the  poor  and  weak,  and  un- 
just distribution  of  privileges.  The  social  condi- 
tions of  Judea  provided  for  organized  selfishness. 
It  was  this  "individual  self-interest  massed  into 
a  group  selfishness"  that  the  Baptist  denounced. 
He  pointed  out  their  sin  and  then  to  each  group  of 
people  he  gave  positive  instructions  for  a  new 
way  of  life.  More  than  mere  preaching,  also,  was 
the  significant  rite  of  baptism  as  an  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  repentance  and  as  a  symbol  of  in- 
itiation into  a  new  movement.  Those  who  con- 
fessed their  sins  and  were  taken  down  into  the 
river  came  out  with  a  feeling  that  the  past  was  be- 
hind them  and  that  they  could  begin  again  in  new- 
ness of  life. 


THE  HOPE  27 

But  just  as  in  all  ages  the  leaders  who  dare  to 
speak  out  freely,  in  concrete  terms,  against  the 
organized  selfishness  of  their  own  time,  have  been 
suppressed,  imprisoned,  and  even  put  to  death, 
so  John  the  Baptist  was  silenced  by  those  who 
were  in  control.  It  may  not  have  been  Herod 
alone  who  moved  against  John.  The  authorities 
who  had  been  publicly  rebuked  by  the  preacher 
for  oppression  and  injustice  would  naturally  have 
watched  for  an  opportunity  to  do  him  harm. 
Josephus  records,  "  Herod  who  feared  lest  the 
great  influence  John  had  over  the  people  might 
put  it  into  his  power  and  inclination  to  raise  a  re- 
bellion, thought  it  best  by  putting  him  to  death  to 
prevent  any  mischief  that  he  might  cause."  This 
statement  of  the  Jewish  historian  supplements  the 
record  of  the  gospels  in  which  the  reason  given  for 
John's  imprisonment  is  his  protest  against  the 
marriage  of  Herod  and  a  woman  who  was  Herod's 
niece  and  his  brother's  wife.  A  social  reformer, 
with  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  was  executed 
by  the  order  of  a  weak  official  who  was  trying  to 
escape  the  consequences  of  his  own  folly.  A  fear- 
less preacher  was  put  to  death  as  an  agitator,  a 
disturber  of  public  order. 

But  John's  work  was  finished.  He  had  pointed 
towards  one  who  was  to  increase  while  John  him- 
self decreased.  The  last  of  the  prophets,  remov- 
ing some  of  the  obstacles  that  stood  in  the  way  of 
a  new  order,  was  the  forerunner  of  a  master 
teacher  who  would  make  known  the  principles  on 
which  the  new  order  could  be  built.  John  had 
cried,  "Kepent,  the  reign  of  heaven  is  near." 


28      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Jesus  repeated  the  words  and  launched  his  move- 
ment on  the  enthusiasm  of  John's. 

So  Jesus  came  to  a  nation  divided  within  itself, 
separated  from  other  nations  by  national  pride, 
and  yet  presenting  the  same  problems  as  the  world 
outside.  What  principles  could  set  men  free  from 
oppression  and  strife!  What  would  arouse  in 
those  on  top  and  in  those  underneath  a  passion  for 
justice?  What  power  could  make  men  love  each 
other  until  all  barriers  should  be  broken  down? 
How  could  men  learn  that  God  was  love?  In 
Israel,  as  in  every  other  nation  of  that  age  and  of 
eveiy  age  even  to  the  present,  the  great  ones  of 
the  earth  were  lording  it  over  those  whom  they 
considered  inferior.  Romans  were  overbearing 
towards  their  subjects;  Jews  felt  superior  to 
Samaritans.  The  rich  exercised  authority  over 
the  poor.  Educated  men  looked  down  upon  the 
ignorant  masses.  Rulers  enjoyed  the  privileges 
of  power,  while  the  multitudes  were  harassed  and 
scattered.  Church  and  State  were  bound  up  to- 
gether, and  religious  leaders  were  identified  with 
influential  families. 

The  religion  of  the  people,  however,  contained 
living  elements  which  made  Israel  peculiarly  fit- 
ted to  be  the  nation  from  which  the  hope  of  the 
world  should  spring.  Of  all  the  nations  in  the 
ancient  world,  only  Israel  believed  in  one  God, 
Jehovah,  who  cared  for  his  people.  Only  Israel 
looked  forward  to  a  new  age  when  justice  should 
"roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as  a 
mighty  stream."  The  Jews  had  been  taught  to 
depend  on  God  as  one  who  would  "  deliver  the 


THE  HOPE  29 

needy  when  he  crieth  and  the  poor  that  hath  no 
helper.' '  In  preparation  for  this  deliverance, 
John  had  preached  repentance  and  started  a  move- 
ment that  had  already  attracted  a  considerable 
number  of  people.  There  were  now  many  whose 
expectation  was  expressed  in  the  words,  "Unto 
you  that  fear  my  name  shall  the  sun  of  righteous- 
ness arise  with  healing  in  its  wings.' '  This  was 
the  hope  on  which  Jesus  was  to  build,  supplement- 
ing and  transforming  it  by  the  spiritual  impulse 
of  his  life. 

But  the  hope  of  the  new  age  is  still  unfulfilled 
and  society  is  still  organized  on  the  basis  of  selfish- 
ness. Whatever  our  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  we  agree  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  not 
yet  conquered  the  kingdoms  of  this  world.  Many 
have  turned  away  from  Jesus  as  a  visionary  who 
failed.  Others  believe  that  in  Jesus  Christ  we 
have  still  the  hope  of  the  world,  but  that  Christians 
have  not  followed  the  way  of  Jesus.  For  nineteen 
centuries,  they  say,  Christians  have  had  oppor- 
tunity to  overcome  evil  with  good  and  to  realize 
the  hope  of  a  new  age,  but  instead  they  have 
drifted,  while  the  old  contrasts  between  riches  and 
poverty,  the  old  strife  for  power,  the  old  hatreds 
of  races  have  reappeared  under  new  forms.  Or, 
as  the  saying  goes,  Christianity  has  never  been 
tried.  We  know  this  is  not  wholly  true,  for  we 
have  experienced  the  power  of  Christ  in  our  inner 
struggles;  we  know  that  our  souls  are  nourished 
by  the  sacrament ;  we  know  that  Christianity  is  a 
living  religion. 

We  may  leave  to  others  analysis  of  the  interplay 


30      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  conscious  idealism  and  material  interest  by 
which  the  race  has  outgrown  slavery  (except  in 
prisons)  and  learned,  theoretically,  the  value  of 
each  individual  soul  and  the  principle  of  political 
democracy.  But  one  insistent  question  faces  us 
when  we  read  the  gospels,  pursues  us  as  we  see  the 
contrasts  in  our  cities,  haunts  us  when  we  remem- 
ber the  millions  killed  and  maimed  and  starved 
by  the  war :  What  visible  witness  are  Christians 
bearing  today  to  the  way  of  Christ  in  the  appar- 
ently impersonal  but  actually  powerful  relation- 
ships that  make  the  web  of  our  industrial  and  na- 
tional fabric?  Are  we  drifting  or  are  we  really 
following  where  Jesus  leads  f  Will  the  new  forms 
which  are  shaping  themselves  in  the  struggles 
about  us  be  a  new  kind  of  organized  selfishness  or 
will  they  express  the  spirit  of  Christ?  Have  we 
nothing  to  offer  that  is  better  than  the  plans  of 
non-Christian  revolutionists? 

In  the  challenge  of  the  world's  confusion,  we 
may  well  renew  our  study  of  the  earthly  life  of 
Jesus  that  we  may  more  clearly  understand  his 
dominating  purpose,  his  method  of  approach  to 
injustice,  his  conflict  with  the  established  order, 
and  his  personal  decisions  at  various  crises  in 
his  life. 


Questions  for  Discussion 

Do  you  agree  with  the  statement  that  the  roots  of 
the  evils  in  Palestine,  when  Jesus  came,  and  in  our 
own  country  now  are  the  same, — desire  for  riches, 
love  of  power,  and  pride  of  race  ?  If  not,  how  would 
you  analyze  the  evils  then  and  the  evils  now? 


THE  HOPE  31 

List  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  which 
are  already  expressed  in  our  social,  economic,  or 
political  structure: 

a.   Principles  common  to  Judea  in  the  first  cen- 
tury and  the  United  States  in  the  twentieth 
century. 
&.   Principles  adopted  since  the  coming  of  Christ. 


Chapter  Two 
WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH 

The  years  at  Nazareth  when  Jesus  lived  at  home 
and  the  qualities  of  mind  He  had  developed  before 
coming  out  into  public  life  are  full  of  significance 
for  us.  As  typical  of  what  home  life  might  be,  as 
full  of  suggestion  for  our  own  mental  discipline 
and  for  the  aims  of  education,  they  are  of  uni- 
versal application.  And  if  we  desire  to  have  our 
children  bring  to  their  adult  life  in  the  community 
the  purposes  and  qualities  of  Jesus  Christ,  we 
may  well  test  our  home  life  by  the  home  from 
which  Jesus  came,  and  our  efforts  at  education, 
at  home  and  at  school,  by  the  qualities  which  Jesus 
brought  to  his  public  work. 

The  gospels  give  us  indirectly  a  good  deal  of 
information  about  the  home  at  Nazareth.1  It  was 
supported  by  a  working-man's  earnings.  Mary, 
at  the  time  of  her  purification  after  childbirth,2 
offered  the  "pair  of  turtledoves  or  two  young 
pigeons"  permitted  for  the  poor,  instead  of  the 
lamb  and  one  turtledove  or  young  pigeon  required 
by  the  Law  from  those  who  could  afford  a  lamb. 
The  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  manner  of  life 
among  the  poor  revealed  in  the  parables  seems  to 
reflect   personal   experience.     Old   clothes    were 

i  The  following  description  was  suggested  in  part  by  The  Jesus 
of  History  by  T.  R.  Glover. 
2  Luke  2:  24. 

32 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH  S3 

patched,1  and  Jesus  knew  just  how  the  patching 
should  be  done.  The  houses  of  the  poor  were 
built  without  windows,2  and  Jesus  speaks  of  the 
lamp  to  be  lighted  before  sweeping;  perhaps  the 
home  at  Nazareth  was  dark.  The  rich  man  would 
not  be  caught  with  an  empty  cupboard 3  and  go  to 
borrow  bread  from  a  neighbor.  Only  a  poor  man 
would  remember  the  bargain  price  of  sparrows,4 
'  '  the  cheapest  flesh  food  used  by  peasants. ' '  That 
the  family  lived  at  close  quarters,  with  the  house- 
hold work  going  on  where  the  children  were 
about,5  is  suggested  by  the  heating  of  the  oven,  by 
the  woman  grinding  meal,  and  by  the  exactness 
of  the  reference  to  hiding  the  leaven  in  three  meas- 
ures of  meal.6  Throughout  the  narrative  of  the 
public  ministry,  we  see  Jesus  living  among  the 
common  people  with  a  natural  simplicity  that  wit- 
nesses to  the  social  stratum  in  which  he  was 
brought  up.  It  is  only  of  the  rich  and  those  in 
high  places  that  Jesus  ever  speaks  in  a  way  that 
implies  separation  from  himself.  His  references 
to  them  as  having  certain  class  characteristics  evi- 
dence to  his  own  identification  with  the  obscure 
who  had  neither  wealth  nor  social  position. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  home  at  Nazareth  was 
not  of  the  poorest.  The  family  was  able  now  and 
then  to  travel  up  to  the  feast  at  Jerusalem.  The 
children  had  enough  to  eat,  and  Jesus  grew  to  man- 
hood with  health  and  vigor.  The  work  of  a  car- 
penter was  in  demand  for  the  making  of  plows 
and  ox-yokes,  and  furniture,  and  many  utensils  in 

iMark2:21.      2Lukel5:8.      3Lukell:5.       *  Matt.  10:  29. 
5  Matt.  6:  30.      6  Luke  17:  35;  Matt.  13:  33. 


84      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

common  use,  and  also  for  certain  structural  work. 
The  garments  Jesus  wore  seem  to  have  been  in- 
conspicuous and  conventional, — neither  the  long 
robe  with  much  purple  of  the  scribe,  nor  the  waist- 
cloth  and  coarse  camel 's  hair  of  the  very  poor. 
The  seamless  tunic  and  the  outer  garment  with  a 
border  prescribed  by  custom  and  the  Law  suggest 
a  home  supplied  with  material  necessities,1  ac- 
cording to  the  prevailing  standard  for  simple 
people. 

Material  comfort  has,  of  course,  been  trans- 
formed since  those  days,  and  to  measure  our  own 
homes  by  the  externals  of  the  home  at  Nazareth 
would  be  a  foolish  literalness  remote  from  the 
spirit  of  Jesus.  But  a  principle  of  permanent 
value  remains.  The  home  at  Nazareth  was  clear 
of  the  accessories  that  cannot  be  had  by  the  multi- 
tude. It  had  none  of  the  badges  of  social  distinc- 
tion, none  of  the  comfort  that  only  means  above 
the  average  can  purchase.  But  the  poverty  was 
not  such  as  to  interfere  with  health  and  participa- 
tion in  the  life  of  the  community.  Not  least  sig- 
nificant is  the  fact  that  the  household  was  sup- 
ported by  work  useful  to  the  community.  The 
soundness  of  such  a  standard  for  the  testing  of 
homes  in  our  own  communities — the  homes  of  our 
great  ones,  the  homes  of  the  moderately  well-to- 
do,  the  homes  of  wage-earners,  the  homes  in  our 
tenements  and  back  alleys — can  be  demonstrated 
from  several  angles.  Both  luxury  and  want  in- 
volve undue  temptation;  physically  and  mentally 

i  John  19:  23;  Matt.  9:  20;  Luke  8:  44. 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         35 

they  are  hazardous.  Luxury  interferes  with  the 
happy  intimacy  of  common  tasks,  the  "project 
method"  in  the  home  which  the  intelligent  mother 
who  lives  without  servants  applies  in  bringing  up 
her  children.  Extreme  poverty  usually  means  that 
every  one  works  to  the  point  of  chronic  fatigue; 
the  mother  neglects  her  children  in  order  to  earn 
money;  leisure  for  playing  with  the  children  is 
unknown  and  burdens  fall  prematurely  on  little 
shoulders.  Not  only  readers  of  The  Survey,  but 
any  one  who  observes  with  seeing  eyes  the  life  in 
a  city — or  in  any  community,  for  that  matter — 
will  think  of  other  dangers,  more  spectacular  and 
perhaps  more  menacing,  involved  in  a  home  life 
too  far  above  or  below  the  common  standard. 

To  measure  the  minimum  below  which  the  fam- 
ily standard  cannot  safely  fall  is  comparatively  a 
simple  matter.  All  would  agree  that  certain  con- 
ditions are  necessary  for  wholesome  life : 

Housing  that  is  not  only  sanitary,  but  also  ade- 
quate, in  space  and  in  furnishings,  for  happy 
group  life  and  for  distributed  home  duties. 

Culture  material  such  as  books  and  music  and 
pictures. 

Opportunity  for  each  child  to  have  schooling 
as  far  as  his  abilities  and  his  interests  can  carry 
him. 

Sufficient  leisure  and  freedom  from  fatiguing 
labor  to  enable  parents  to  spend  considerable  time 
in  the  company  of  their  children  and  to  enter  into 
their  play  and  other  interests. 

Sufficient  income  to  enable  the  family  to  take 
part  in  community  affairs  such  as  religious,  phi- 


86      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

lanthropic,  recreational,  cultural,  and  civic  en- 
terprises. 

The  well-intentioned  makers  of  budgets  for  the 
very  poor  need  constantly  to  be  on  their  guard 
against  overlooking,  or  deliberately  omitting,  cer- 
tain items  as  unnecessary  luxuries  which  the 
budget-maker  regards  as  a  necessity  for  himself. 

The  dividing  line  between  luxury  and  simplicity 
is  not  so  easy  to  define.  The  family  that  employs 
one  servant  lives  simply  in  comparison  with  the 
family  that  employs  six.  The  woman  who  has  had 
several  evening  gowns  takes  a  step  away  from 
luxury  when  she  is  content  with  one.  The  man 
who  spends  two  dollars  for  his  luncheon  is  living 
at  a  different  standard  from  the  man  who  never 
spends  more  than  seventy-five  cents.  But  all  alike 
are  living  in  luxury  in  comparison  with  the  family 
where  no  servant  is  employed  and  the  wife  does 
not  own  an  evening  gown  and  the  husband  takes 
a  mid-day  meal  with  him  from  home.  The  test  lies 
deeper  than  these  externals,  although  externals 
are  definitely  involved.  In  the  home  at  Nazareth 
there  was  no» separation  from  the  life  of  the  multi- 
tude. In  ouphomes,  then,  can  we  Christians  afford 
any  of  the  accessories  that  make  for  separate- 
ness?  Must  we  not  refuse,  as  luxury,  the  space 
and  the  leisure  and  the  way  of  dressing  and  the 
kind  of  expenditure  that  identify  us  with  the  well- 
to-do  and  gratify  a  desire  for  distinction  from 
the  common  people?  Various  definitions  of  lux- 
ury will  occur  to  any  one  and  few  persons  would 
agree  as  to  the  exact  point  at  which  luxury  begins. 
At  least  we  can  test  by  a  little  honest  self-exami- 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         37 

nation  the  sincerity  of  our  desire  to  avoid  luxury. 
Am  I  claiming  as  a  necessity  any  comfort  or 
expenditure  which  I  should  consider  a  luxury  and 
not  a  necessity  for  any  one  else,  rich  or  poor,  of  my 
sex,  age,  and  condition  of  health,  who  is  situated 
as  I  am  in  relation  to  parents,  husband  or  wife, 
children,  or  others  for  whose  well-being  I  am  re- 
sponsible! It  may  occur  to  me  that  I  need  books 
or  music  or  some  costly  beauty  for  which  others 
would  not  care.  But  how  can  I  be  sure  that  it  is 
more  important  to  satisfy  my  taste  in  the  drama, 
for  example,  than  that  others  should  gratify  tastes 
that  seem  to  me  coarse  and  unnecessary?  Is  it 
quite  in  the  spirit  of  Christ  to  wear  clothes  of  a 
costly  simplicity  and  begrudge  to  others  their  ex- 
penditure for  cheap  finery?  How  do  I  know  that 
with  a  generation  of  greater  opportunity  for  edu- 
cation and  of  more  experience  in  spending,  the 
crude  tastes  would  not  surpass  my  own?  At  least 
it  must  be  questioned  whether  differences  in  taste 
that  seem  to  correspond  to  class  distinctions  do 
not  reflect  differences  in  education  and  in  oppor- 
tunity for  expenditure  rather  than  essential  and 
unchangeable  differences  in  mentality  and  sensi- 
tiveness to  beauty.  But  this  natural  protest  of 
one  who  has  been  gently  reared  against  claiming 
nothing  for  one's  self  that  one  would  not  count  a 
necessity  for  others  of  a  different  background  and 
upbringing  disappears  in  contemplation  of  the 
simplicity  of  Jesus.  No  poet  has  excelled  Him  in 
conveying  the  joy  of  beauty.  No  one  questions 
the  wealth  of  his  perceptions,  the  literary  distinc- 
tion of  his  words.    Do  we  not  confess  the  poverty 


38      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  our  mental  life  if  we  demand  accessories  of 
culture  peculiar  to  a  favored  class  when  Jesus 
was  independent  of  such  superficial  distinctions? 
To  Him,  plainly,  there  was  an  unreality,  even  an 
unwholesomeness,  in  the  tastes  and  refinements 
that  set  the  few,  in  his  day,  apart  from  the  many. 
The  way  in  which  Jesus  lived  does  not  suggest 
that  beauty  is  undesirable  and  material  comfort 
is  bad.  It  does  make  plain  that  in  demanding  any 
badge  of  class  distinction,  any  gratification  of 
costly  tastes  for  which  others  have  no  equivalent, 
we  are  misunderstanding  the  scale  of  values  by 
which  Jesus  lived,  we  are  setting  ourselves  apart 
from  the  common  life. 

Another  test  of  our  sincerity  in  desiring  a  sim- 
plicity of  living  that  shall  identify  us  with  simple 
people  is  suggested  by  the  question,  Am  I  em- 
ploying others  to  do  for  me  work  which  I  should 
not  willingly  be  employed  to  do  for  them  1  Again 
we  need  to  beware  of  juggling  with  imaginary  dif- 
ferences of  taste.  If  we  are  honest  with  ourselves 
we  know  that  refusal  to  choose  teaching  as  a 
career  if  one  felt  an  urgent  desire  to  be  an  archi- 
tect is  quite  different  from  refusal  to  be  employed, 
for  example,  as  a  laundress  if  one  had  opportunity 
to  earn  an  equivalent  amount  in  giving  lectures  on 
current  topics.  Possibly  it  would  be  fairer  to 
phrase  the  question  thus :  Am  I  expecting  others 
to  work  for  me  under  conditions  that  place  them 
as  social  inferiors  ?  Consider  that  women  of  gen- 
tle birth  and  good  education  do  not  hesitate  to 
become  teachers  of  domestic  science  but  never 
think  of  cooking  in  a  private  family  where  they 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         39 

would  be  Jane  or  Bessie  to  persons  whom  they 
must  address  with  proper  formality.  (Can  we  im- 
agine Jesus  refusing  to  any  man  or  woman  the 
form  of  address  which  courtesy  requires  among 
social  equals  who  are  not  on  terms  of  mutual  in- 
timacy and  friendship?)  The  fact  that  men  and 
women  are  still  found  (though  in  diminishing 
numbers)  who  acquiesce  in  conditions  of  work  that 
set  them  apart  as  socially  inferior  to  their  em- 
ployers, that  in  earnings  and  material  comfort 
they  may  fare  better  than  many  other  wage-earn- 
ers, and  that  kindliness  and  goodwill  are  often 
present  in  Christian  households,  does  not  alter  the 
underlying  sense  of  superiority  on  the  part  of  the 
employer.  Granting  that  all  sorts  of  differences 
may  divide  the  one  from  the  other,  differences  in 
natural  ability  as  well  as  differences  in  back- 
ground and  education,  one  may  yet  question  the 
importance  of  such  differences  in  comparison  with 
the  essential  similarity  of  the  desires  and  motives 
and  experiences  that  constitute  human  living.  It 
even  suggests  a  subtle  sort  of  bullying  to  trade  on 
our  real  or  fancied  superiority  to  others,  and  re- 
quire of  our  so-called  inferiors  conditions  of  work 
we  should  resent  for  ourselves  or  tasks  so  unpleas- 
ant that  we  will  not  touch  them. 

Followers  of  Jesus  who  realize  that  his  identifi- 
cation with  the  common  people  was  a  cardinal  fact 
in  his  earthly  life  and  who  are  therefore  called  to 
a  similar  identification  with  the  wage-earning 
class  today,  are  turning  away  from  luxury  be- 
cause simplicity  in  daily  living  is  the  first  and 
most  obvious  expression  of  their  desire.    How  else 


40      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

can  they  prove  to  their  children  that  they  really 
want  to  live  as  Jesus  lived?  The  educational 
value  of  a  Christian  home  where  no  social  in- 
feriors are  employed,  where  there  is  no  lurking 
pride  of  family  or  class  and  no  toadying  to  the 
wealth  or  position  of  others,  and  where  an  income 
sufficient  for  physical  needs  and  a  happy  group 
life  is  earned  by  useful  work,  seems  beyond  ques- 
tion. And,  obviously,  the  final  test  of  family  life 
is  the  way  in  which  it  affects  the  children. 

But  do  we,  or  do  we  not,  wish  our  children  to 
grow  to  resemble  Jesus?  Do  we,  for  example, 
want  them  to  have  more  respect  for  an  uneducated 
widow  who  is  supporting  her  children  and  trying 
to  bring  them  up  well  than  for  a  cultivated  banker 
who  devotes  all  his  leisure  energy  to  the  collec- 
tion of  porcelains!  Do  we  want  them  to  develop 
such  originality  of  thinking  that  they  will  see  new 
distinctions  between  the  commandments  of  God 
and  the  traditions  of  men?  Do  we  want  them 
to  raise  embarrassing  questions  about  the  source 
of  the  power  by  which  some  hold  authority  over 
others?  Do  we  encourage  them  to  be  loyal  to 
convictions  that  run  counter  to  that  which  is 
socially  correct?  Are  we  prepared  to  see  them 
suffer  poverty,  imprisonment,  perhaps  death,  for 
an  unpopular  cause  that  holds,  for  them,  the  hope 
of  the  race? 

For,  in  Jesus,  identification  with  the  common 
people  in  the  externals  of  living  was  the  symbol 
of  a  spirit  alive  to  every  essential  of  human  ex- 
perience, which  could  not  be  limited  in  its  fel- 
lowship nor  corrupted  in  its  thinking  by  man- 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         41 

made  distinctions.  In  Him  the  great  thoughts  of 
the  race  and  the  beauty  of  the  world,  and  the  daily 
loyalties  of  simple  people,  and  hours  of  solitary 
communion  with  the  unseen,  nourished  an  unflinch- 
ing integrity  of  purpose  and  desire.  He  tran- 
scends his  background,  but  in  spite  of  his  family's 
misunderstanding  of  the  ways  of  his  public  work 
we  feel  that  there  is  no  essential  inconsistency, 
no  miraculous  change  from  the  child  "who  in- 
creased in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor  with 
God  and  man"  to  the  man  Jesus  Christ  to  whom 
we  turn  as  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life. 

We  realize,  dimly,  that  as  the  son,  for  example, 
of  a  wealthy  Pharisee  Jesus  would  have  had  much 
to  unlearn  or  outgrow.  He  would  have  had  to 
leave  behind  certain  trappings  of  mind  whose 
pettiness  is  obvious  in  comparison  with  the  great- 
ness of  his  nature.  Or,  as  the  son  of  an  outcast 
beggar  deprived  of  the  religious  inheritance  of 
the  Jews,  stunted  in  mind  and  body  by  lack  of 
food  and  by  separation  from  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity, his  perfection  of  manhood  would  have 
been  unrelated  to  the  usual  processes  of  growth 
and  would  have  seemed  unreal,  even  alien,  to  our 
human  nature.  But  the  workingman,  born  into 
the  home  of  a  workingman,  was  not  spoiled  by 
social  distinction  nor  stunted  by  want.  If  we 
feel  that  even  for  Jesus  the  kind  of  home  in  which 
He  was  brought  up  played  a  part  in  his  prepara- 
tion for  manhood,  must  we  not  stress  the  impor- 
tance of  right  surroundings,  clean  of  luxury  and 
protected  from  want,  for  children  with  smaller 
spirits  than  his? 


42      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

The  contrasts  in  our  communities  are  becom- 
ing intolerable  to  many  who  do  not  profess  to 
follow  Jesus.  How  much  more  do  they  challenge 
the  sincerity  of  Christians!  When  Europe  is  on 
the  verge  of  starvation  and  when  in  prosperous 
America  more  than  half  the  babies  in  a  typical 
city  are  born  into  homes  where  the  father  earns 
during  the  year  less  than  the  amount  considered 
by  expert  budget  makers  as  sufficient  for  a  min- 
imum of  subsistence,1  how  remote  from  the  spirit 
of  Christ  is  a  life  provided  with  comforts  that 
are  inaccessible  to  the  great  majority  of  our 
fellow  men.  Christians  who  live  luxuriously  in  a 
suffering  world  or  who,  themselves  unable  to  en- 
joy luxury,  passively  accept  the  contrasts  between 
rich  and  poor  as  a  wholesome  or  necessary  con- 
dition of  society  are  scored  by  non-Christians  as 
hypocrites.  For  the  non-Christian  idealist  who 
trusts  wholly  to  a  change  in  the  social  structure 
and  who  believes  that  the  action  of  one  or  an- 
other individual  in  his  own  daily  life  matters 
little  so  long  as  the  present  economic  system  en- 
dures, knows  perfectly  that  the  Christian  faces 
a  sterner  challenge.  He  remembers,  when  we  for- 
get, how  Jesus  lived  with  the  poor  and  how  He 
expected  his  disciples  to  identify  themselves  in 
spirit  with  the  needs  of  the  poor.  And  our  non- 
Christian  critic  is  fair  in  mistrusting  the  reality 
of  a  spiritual  identification  that  fails  to  overthrow 
barriers  expressing  and  promoting  separation. 

The  spirit  of  separateness  betrays  itself  in  a 
hundred  ways  more   subtle   than  material   con- 

i  See  Federal  Children's  Bureau  reports  on  infant  mortality. 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         43 

trasts.  The  labor  union  closed  to  the  unskilled' 
worker;  the  college  girl  in  an  office  who  regards 
the  mere  stenographers  as  a  group  apart;  the 
office  force  who  look  down  on  the  scrub-woman 
and  the  factory  hands;  the  executives  distinct 
from  their  subordinates  (whether  in  a  great  cor- 
poration or  in  the  smallest  office  of  a  civic  or- 
ganization) ;  the  white  workers  who  refuse  to  sit 
beside  a  colored  worker;  the  conservatives  who 
hurl  epithets  at  any  one  who  disagrees  with  them; 
the  radicals  who  mistrust  every  employer;  and, 
not  least,  the  Christians  who  insist  on  the  sepa- 
rateness  of  their  several  churches  when  it  is  still 
possible  that  the  sum  total  of  all  our  truths  falls 
short  of  a  complete  understanding  of  Christ, — 
every  one  will  think  of  other  evidences  of  the 
division  which  marks  a  world  alien  to  the  spirit 
of  Christ. 

A  community  expresses  itself  most  clearly  in 
the  way  in  which  it  treats  children.  Do  we  mani- 
fest here  a  sense  of  human  unity  in  spite  of  our 
failures  in  the  relation  of  adults  to  each  other? 
On  the  contrary,  our  divisions  bear  a  perfect  fruit 
that  betrays  our  inmost  desires.  We  allow  even 
the  babies  to  pay  for  their  parents'  poverty.  Ac- 
cording to  a  Federal  report  one  baby  in  six  died 
within  the  year  after  birth  in  the  poorest  families 
in  a  certain  city,  and  one  baby  in  twenty-six  died 
within  the  year  after  birth  in  the  families  where 
the  fathers  earned  a  comfort  wage.  We  acquiesce 
in  the  fact  that  millions  of  children  are  going 
through  the  years  of  most  rapid  growth  and  form- 
ing the  habits  which  will  determine  their  future 


44      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

without  sunshine  and  open  spaces,  with  no  oppor- 
tunity for  the  right  kind  of  play,  without  privacy 
and  the  common  essentials  for  decent  living.  We 
even  pride  ourselves  on  our  juvenile  courts  and 
probation  systems  (although  these  remedies 
are  not  yet  universal)  instead  of  insisting  that 
children  in  every  home  in  every  neighborhood 
shall  have  the  conditions  we  know  are  necessary 
for  the  physical  and  moral  health  of  our  own  chil- 
dren. Theoretically,  schooling  is  available  for 
all,  but  some  two-thirds  of  our  children  do  not 
even  enter  our  high  schools  and  only  some  five 
per  cent  ever  enter  a  college.1  "We  allow  our 
school  officials  and  boards  of  estimate  and  county 
and  State  authorities  to  underpay  teachers  and 
set  low  standards  for  the  qualifications  of  teach- 
ers ;  to  offer  schooling  in  rural  neighborhoods  far 
below  the  recognized  standard  for  city  schools; 
and  toiapportion  relatively  less  for  colored  schools 
than  for  white  schools.  Practically  every  one  who 
can  afford  it  separates  his  children  from  the  com- 
mon herd.  We  even  see  separate  Sunday  schools 
for  the  select  and  the  "poor."  Whether  the  pri- 
vate school  merely  satisfies  a  desire  to  identify 
one's  children  with  the  correct  social  group  or — 
as  is  less  frequently  the  case — it  is  sought  in  des- 
peration by  parents  who  insist  on  school  methods 
aiming  to  stimulate  and  not  to  deaden  individu- 
ality, it  betrays  our  failure  to  create  a  Christian 
community.  For  whatever  else  may  be  included 
in  the  Christian  aim  of  education  it  must  be  pri- 
marily the  highest  possible  development  of  each 

i  See  reports  of  Federal  Bureau  of  Education. 


WITH  THE  FAMILY  AT  NAZARETH         45 

person,  not  as  an  individual  or  as  a  member  of 
some  selected  group  that  will  grow  at  the  expense 
of  other  individuals  or  other  groups,  but  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  human  family  for  whom  life  means 
nothing  apart  from  its  interrelation  with  all  other 
lives.  The  life  of  the  race  demands  the  best  think- 
ing, the  greatest  moral  courage,  the  clearest  vision 
of  past,  present,  and  future,  the  utmost  selfless- 
ness and  love  that  each  one  can  give. 

What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  Will  the 
challenge  of  the  times  to  the  sincerity  of  Chris- 
tians in  their  daily  lives,  in  their  relation  to  the 
lives  of  others  in  the  community,  and  in  their  edu- 
cational aims  that  reflect  their  desire  for  the  fu- 
ture, still  go  unheeded  ?  We  do  not  need  any  great 
new  leader  to  show  us  the  way  of  simplicity,  to 
purge  us  of  pride,  to  teach  us  to  love  our  neigh- 
bors as  ourselves  and  to  tell  us  who  is  our  neigh- 
bor. We  need  only  a  greater  singleness  of  pur- 
pose; the  eye  that  shall  discern  in  detail  the  fail- 
ure of  our  relationships  today  and  bring  us  new 
light  on  how  Christ  would  have  them  transformed ; 
the  purity  of  heart  that  will  make  plain  the  way 
of  righteousness.  If  each  Christian  man  and 
woman  desired  above  all  else  to  share  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  in  relation  to  his  fellow  men — whatever 
this  might  involve  in  sacrifice  of  personal  com- 
fort or  distinction  or  in  identification  with  un- 
popular causes — religion  would  become  once  more 
a  genuine  power  in  the  community. 


46      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 


Questions  for  Discussion 


1. 


Find  out  the  daily  wage  paid  to  an  unskilled  worker 
in  your  community  and  compute  the  amount  such  a 
man  would  earn  if  he  worked  three  hundred  days 
in  the  year.  Make  out  a  budget  for  the  division  of 
such  an  income  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  family  of 
five  (father,  mother,  and  three  children),  allowing 
for  each  of  the  following  items: 


Rent 

Household  help  in  case  of 

Fuel 

mother's  illness 

Light 

Newspapers,        magazines, 

Household     supplies, 

books,     classes     (self -im- 

renewal  of   furni- 

provement) 

ture,  etc. 

Labor  organization  or  mu- 

Food 

tual  benefit  fund 

Clothing 

Religious  affiliation,  social 

Carfare  to  and  from 

organization,  etc. 

work 

Recreation,       amusements, 

Other    carfare,    tele- 

vacation 

phone,   postage, 

Insurance  and  ether  sav- 

stationery 

ings 

Medical  care,  includ- 

Incidentals 

ing  dentist,  oculist, 

etc. 

2.  Do  you  think  a  social  group  is  justified  in  spending 
more  for  comfort  and  culture  than  it  considers 
necessary  for  another  social  group  ? 


Chapter  Three 
IN  THE  COMMUNITY 

Fifteen  hundred  millions  of  human  beings  live 
on  the  earth  today  and  nearly  one-third  of  them 
are  in  countries  called  Christian.  These  ' '  Chris- 
tian" nations  are  the  nations  of  the  greatest  in- 
dustrial development,  but  some  of  the  countries 
called  non-Christian — Japan,  India,  and  China — 
are  rapidly  changing  from  an  agricultural  to  an 
industrial  civilization.  Millions  of  men  and 
women  are  engaged  in  the  production  of  goods 
necessary  for  the  life  of  the  world.  Society  can 
never  go  back  to  the  static  condition  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  for  speed  in  production  and  trade  between 
nations  are  essential  to  the  support  of  the  popu- 
lation. 

In  this  problem  of  rapidly  developing  industry 
in  every  country  and  of  the  interrelationship  of 
nations,  one  issue  stands  out  as  clearly  as  it  stood 
out  in  the  simple  agricultural  life  of  Palestine 
when  Jesus  began  his  work  in  the  community. 
It  is  still  the  question  of  relations  between  man 
and  man,  between  man  and  God.  "What  is  the 
kind  of  human  life  which  is  according  to  God's 
intention?  What  would  Jesus  say  about  our  in- 
dustrial world  to-day?  Would  He  approve  of  a 
society  that  means  wealth  for  a  few  and  poverty 
for  many,  power  for  those  on  top  and  the  subor- 

47 


48      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

dination  of  those  underneath?  If  we  are  mem- 
bers of  his  church  we  believe  that  his  way  of  living 
and  working  has  something  to  teach  us  about  our 
duty  in  the  complicated  life  of  the  present.  We 
still  turn  to  one  who  walked  up  and  down  dusty 
roads  in  Galilee,  and  ask  how  his  method  may  be 
applied  now  in  the  streets  of  cities  where  auto- 
mobiles follow  traffic  regulations  and  airplanes  fly 
overhead.  What  was  the  manner  of  his  life  that  it 
can  still  draw  men  so  irresistibly!  Why  do  even 
those  outside  the  Christian  Church  yet  talk  about 
Him  and  think  about  Him?  Why  should  a  group 
of  I.  W.  W.,  casual  laborers,  despised  by  Ameri- 
can citizens,  pause  before  supper,  raise  tin  mugs 
of  coffee  and  drink  to  " Comrade  Jesus"!  Why 
should  a  professor  of  history  who  had  never  pre- 
tended to  be  a  Christian  spend  all  his  leisure  time 
for  six  years  in  writing  a  book  about  Jesus 
Christ?  * 

Jesus  can  still  appeal  to  varied  types  of  people 
after  so  many  centuries  because  He  showed  men 
the  meaning  of  life.  Since  He  lived,  we  have 
gained  our  understanding  of  God  from  his  char- 
acter. We  cannot  imagine  anything  in  the  char- 
acter of  God  that  we  do  not  find  in  the  character 
of  Jesus  Christ.  We  seek  his  qualities  as  our 
highest  ideal.  If  qualities  like  his  can  be  devel- 
oped in  children  by  the  right  kind  of  homes  and 
schools,  then  the  character  so  developed  will  ex- 
press itself,  as  did  his,  in  the  crises  of  life.  What 
a  man  chooses  to  do  at  the  moment  when  a  de- 
cision is  to  be  made  is  the  result  of  all  that  has 
gone  into   the  making  of  his   character.    With 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  49 

Jesus,  there  must  have  been  times  in  the  home  at 
Nazareth  when  He  put  aside  his  desire  to  work  in 
the  world  outside  and  decided  to  wait.  There 
must  have  been  another  definite  decision  to  make 
when  He  left  home  and  identified  Himself  with  the 
movement  of  John  the  Baptist. 

John's  preaching  was  concerned  with  external 
righteousness.  Jesus  who  believed  that  motives 
were  more  important  than  acts  might  well  have 
hesitated  before  joining  a  party  which  did  not 
fully  express  his  own  purposes.  John  and  his 
followers  seem  to  have  been  outside  the  organized 
religion  of  Judaism.  Their  way  of  life  was  so 
different  from  the  way  of  Jesus  that  the  methods 
were  sometimes  contrasted.1  Yet  Jesus  decided 
to  associate  himself  with  a  group  of  people  who 
were  removing  some  of  the  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  his  Kingdom.  There  are  movements  today, 
outside  the  Christian  Church,  working  for  eco- 
nomic justice  as  truly  as  John  worked.  Some  of 
the  leaders  are  in  prison.  It  may  be  that  Jesus 
would  identify  Himself  with  the  causes  that  seem 
to  Christians  so  purely  secular  as  to  have  no  con- 
nection with  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

What  the  baptism  of  John  meant  to  Jesus  we 
can  only  imagine,  but  as  baptism  was  the  sign  of 
repentance  and  the  rite  of  initiation  into  the  new 
movement,  He  wished  to  share  in  this  act  of  peni- 
tence for  the  sins  of  his  nation.  Only  now  after 
nineteen  hundred  years,  during  which  the  church 
has  taught  the  importance  of  contrition  for  per- 
sonal sins,  are  we  beginning  to  understand  the 

iMark  2:  18-22. 


50      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

social  sense  of  sin  when  one  person  who  is  not 
individually  responsible  for  the  selfishness  of  a 
group  still  gives  himself  in  repentance  for  the 
society  that  has  not  yet  organized  constructive 
good  will.  So  the  baptism  of  Jesus  seems  to  have 
marked  his  identification  with  the  nation  and  his 
consecration  to  a  life  that  was  to  be  lived  for  the 
sake  of  the  community  and  the  world. 

How  fully  realized  this  consciousness  of  social 
purpose  had  already  been  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  We  can  only  see  that  He  began  at  once 
to  build  upon  the  common  belief  in  a  new  age. 
With  his  desire  for  a  society  which  should  express 
on  earth  the  will  of  his  Father,  He  must  decide 
upon  the  method  He  would  use.  There  was  the 
method  of  those  in  authority  who  doubtless 
thought  themselves  justified  in  using  any  means 
to  enforce  obedience  to  the  Law.  There  was  the 
method  of  those  who  expected  that  Jehovah  would 
establish  the  supremacy  of  the  Chosen  People  by 
miraculous  intervention.  There  was  the  method 
of  the  Zealots  who  would  use  force  to  overcome 
force.  And  there  was  another  method  which  had 
never  been  tried ;  a  way  of  living  by  which  a  man 
would  refuse  to  use  his  privileges  for  his  own 
advantage,  and  would  repudiate  the  use  of  evil 
means  even  for  good  ends ;  the  long  slow  way  of 
teaching  love  by  loving.  Tempted  to  use  power 
selfishly,  Jesus  decided  not  to  be  waited  upon  but 
to  wait  on  others.  Tempted  to  depend  on  super- 
natural means  for  the  hastening  of  the  new  age, 
He  decided  to  teach  men  that  progress  would  come 
not  only  by  prayer  but  by  natural  growth  and  by 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  51 

intelligent  understanding.  He  would  love  his 
Father,  and  teach  others  to  love  Him,  not  only 
with  his  whole  heart  and  soul  and  strength,  but 
with  his  whole  mind.  Tempted  to  accept  the 
standards  of  the  world  and  hasten  the  new  age 
by  the  use  of  violence,  He  repudiated  all  means 
that  would  not  develop  in  men  the  qualities  re- 
quired in  that  new  age.  If  He  would  lead  men 
to  re-think  God  as  one  who  was  free  from  all 
caprice  and  favoritism  and  respect  of  persons, 
He  could  not  use  coercion  as  his  method.  To  free 
men  from  fear,  to  let  them  respond  to  the  love  of 
God  as  naturally  as  a  little  child  responds  to  a 
father  who  has  never  made  him  afraid,  this  was 
to  be  the  purpose  of  his  work.  He  came  that  peo- 
ple might  have  life  and  might  have  it  abundantly. 
He  meant  life  in  its  fullest  sense — health,  mental 
development,  spiritual  understanding — the  har- 
mony of  the  whole  nature  of  a  person.  The  test 
of  his  work  should  be,  Does  it  bring  more  life  to 
men,  women  and  children?  Does  it  make  for  the 
fullest  possible  development  of  each  man,  woman 
or  child? 

And  so  He  chose  a  method  so  simple  that  a  child 
could  understand  it,  and  yet  so  profound  that  the 
greatest  thinkers  of  the  present  day  are  still  dis- 
cussing its  implications.  He  cared  for  each  in- 
dividual person.  He  wanted  people  to  have  food 
when  they  were  hungry  and  so  He  fed  them.  He 
wanted  every  one  to  be  strong  and  well  and  so  He 
healed  them.  He  wanted  people  to  live  together 
without  barriers  and  so  He  dined  with  those  whom 
men  thought  they  could  afford  to  despise.     He 


52      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

associated  with  fishermen  and  tax-gatherers;  He 
chose  as  one  of  his  friends  a  radical  who  believed 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  government.  He  felt  at 
home  in  the  house  of  Martha  and  Mary  who  did 
their  own  work  and  yet  when  He  looked  at  the  rich 
young  man,  He  loved  him.  He  was  as  ready  to 
heal  the  servant  of  a  Roman  military  officer  as  to 
restore  the  sight  of  a  blind  beggar  on  the  street. 
Every  single  human  life  was  to  Him  of  equal  value, 
because  He  was  sure  that  his  Father  had  no  favor- 
ites.1 No  property  was  worth  so  much  as  the  life 
of  a  man. 

We  take  for  granted  now  that  God  cares  for 
each  one  of  the  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  human 
beings  on  earth,  and  we  do  not  realize  how  revo- 
lutionary was  such  teaching  in  the  days  of  the 
Roman  Empire  when  society  was  organized  on 
the  basis  of  slavery.  Yet  even  as  we  say  we  take 
it  for  granted,  we  know  that  we  do  not  act  as  if 
it  were  true.  The  life  and  personality  of  every 
individual  are  of  supreme  value.  Apply  that  prin- 
ciple as  a  test  of  our  civilization.  Does  the  or- 
ganization of  our  social  and  industrial  order  pro- 
vide for  the  fullest  possible  development  of  every 
man,  every  woman  and  every  child?  Does  it  meet 
their  physical  needs  and  give  to  every  one  equal 
opportunities  for  education,  work,  play  and  wor- 
ship! Does  it  separate  men  or  unite  them!  Does 
it  strengthen  the  instincts  that  make  for  destruc- 
tion of  life  or  the  instincts  that  lead  to  creation, 
solidarity   and  free,   happy   intercourse!    Is   it 

iMatt.  16:26. 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  53 

based  on  the  motive  of  domination  or  of  mutual 
service ! 

This  test  of  our  Christian  civilization  is  ac- 
cepted by  the  Lambeth  Committee  report  on 
industrial  and  social  problems  (Lambeth  Con- 
ference of  the  Anglican  Church,  1920) :  "Life 
must  always  count  for  more  than  property,  the 
possession  of  which  ought  always  to  answer  to 
some  function  duly  performed.  Therefore  we  are 
bound  to  condemn  any  system  which  regards  men 
and  women  as  mere  instruments  for  the  produc- 
tion of  wealth.  ...  If  a  man  is  always  expressing 
the  ideals  of  others,  with  never  a  chance  to  express 
his  own,  his  personality  is  denied  its  full  devel- 
opment. ' '  And  the  Church  of  England  commends 
to  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  Christian  peo- 
ple the  report  of  the  Archbishops 9  Fifth  Commit- 
tee of  Inquiry  (1918) :  "It  would  not  be  unfair 
to  say  that  large  numbers  of  working  people  are 
at  the  present  time  employed  on  terms  which  sug- 
gest that  they  are  means  to  the  production  of 
wealth  rather  than  themselves  the  human  ends  for 
whom  wealth  is  produced.  .  .  .  We  cannot  believe 
in  the  stability  of  any  society,  however  imposing 
its  economic  triumphs,  if  it  cripples  the  person- 
ality of  its  workers,  or  if  it  deprives  them  of  that 
control  over  the  material  conditions  of  their  own 
lives  which  is  the  essence  of  practical  freedom.' ' 

Let  us  apply  this  test  to  some  of  our  problems 
here  in  America  today.  Does  the  organization 
of  our  social  and  industrial  order  meet  the  phys- 
ical needs  of  the  workers  and  give  to  every  one 
in  the  community  equal  opportunities  for  educa- 


54,      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

tion,  work,  play  and  worship?  We  cannot,  within 
the  limits  of  any  one  book  of  this  size,  consider 
all  the  problems  of  our  industrial  life,  but  we  can 
look  at  questions  of  working  hours,  monotony  in 
work,  unemployment,  the  management  of  an  in- 
dustry, and  ownership  of  the  means  of  production, 
in  the  light  of  the  principle  by  which  Jesus  lived. 
He  lived  as  if  He  really  believed  that  every  son 
and  daughter  of  God  is  of  infinite  and  equal  value. 
Are  we  living  as  if  we  really  believed  it? 

The  number  of  hours  spent  at  work  each  day 
is  a  vital  matter  in  the  life  of  any  man  or  woman. 
The  working  hours  are  usually  the  best  hours  of 
daylight,  and  the  condition  of  the  worker's  mind 
and  body  after  the  day's  work  will  determine  what 
he  does  during  the  remaining  hours  of  the  day. 
If  he  has  eight  hours  for  work,  eight  hours  for 
sleep,  and  eight  hours  for  other  activities,  he  may 
reasonably  be  expected,  under  normal  conditions, 
to  keep  himself  in  good  health.  Have  we  then 
demanded  that  such  a  division  of  the  twenty-four 
hours  shall  be  possible  for  all  men  and  women? 
There  is  an  illusion  among  some  people  that  trade 
unions  and  social  agencies  have  already  secured 
for  the  great  majority  of  wage-earners  the  eight- 
hour  working  day.  As  a  matter  of  fact  in  1919 
only  about  twenty-six  per  cent  of  workers  in  man- 
ufacture and  transportation  had  the  eight-hour 
day.1  Many  of  the  women  who  are  now  working 
more  than  eight  hours  a  day  in  factories  must  do 
housework  before  they  go  out  in  the  morning  and 

i  Unpublished  computation  by  John  A.  Fitch  from  data  pub- 
lished by  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  period  1915-1919. 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  55 

after  they  come  home  at  night.  Sunday,  or  the 
one  day's  rest  in  seven,  is  the  only  day  in  which 
to  do  all  the  washing  and  house-cleaning.  And 
the  strain  of  the  long  day  in  a  factory  has  been 
increased  by  the  demand  for  greater  speed  in  pro- 
duction. That  industry  does  not  suffer,  however, 
from  an  eight-hour  day  has  been  proved  by  care- 
ful statistical  studies.1  Steady  maintenance  of 
output  is  often  more  possible  under  an  eight-hour 
day  than  under  a  longer  day.  Enlightened  em- 
ployers have  sometimes  voluntarily  introduced  the 
shorter  day  and  have  seen  the  value  of  healthful 
conditions  in  work.  Yet  there  are  still  in  hun- 
dreds of  factories,  in  which  men  and  women  spend 
a  large  portion  of  their  lives,  the  old  evils,  bad 
air,  bad  lighting,  noise,  dust,  gases,  humidity,  and 
extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  with  the  resulting  ef- 
fects upon  the  health  of  the  employees.  The  need 
of  protection  is  more  obvious  for  women  than  for 
men,  but  the  problem  is  essentially  the  same  for 
all.  The  stultifying  effect  of  the  long  day  upon 
men  workers  was  seen  conspicuously  in  the  steel 
industry.  An  investigation  of  the  steel  strike 
revealed  the  fact  that  about  one  hundred  thousand 
men  had  been  working  twelve  hours  a  day,  and 
about  fifty  thousand  men  had  been  working  seven 
days  a  week.  The  report  of  the  interchurch  com- 
mission of  inquiry  states  as  one  of  its  conclusions, 
"The  twelve-hour  day  made  any  attempt  at 
1  Americanization'  or  other  civic  or  individual  de- 

i  Cf.  U.  S.  Public  Health  Bulletin  No.  106,  Feb,  1920,  Fatigue 
and  Efficiency,  and  British  Ministry  of  Munitions,  Health  of 
Munition  Workers,  1916. 


56      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

velopment  for  one-half  of  all  immigrant  steel 
workers  arithmetically  impossible."1 

The  professional  man  who  argues,  "I  work 
more  than  eight  hours  a  day.  Why  shouldn't  the 
laborer  ?"  has  no  conception  of  the  difference  be- 
tween work  that  is  the  expression  of  a  man's 
whole  personality  and  monotonous  labor  in  which 
a  man  has  no  personal  interest.  It  is  obvious 
that  for  greater  efficiency  in  production,  there 
must  be  such  division  of  labor  that  the  individual 
worker  has  only  one  small  share  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  an  article.  That  it  is  possible  to  make 
even  this  small  share  stimulate  the  creative  in- 
stinct in  a  man  is  being  proved  by  the  experiments 
of  engineers  who  are  studying  this  problem  in 
industry.2  And  other  experiments  in  certain 
plants  are  showing  that  if  the  workers  share  in 
the  management  and  control  of  an  industry  they 
are  interested  even  in  a  monotonous  piece  of  work 
that  contributes  to  the  success  of  the  whole  under- 
taking. If  we  apply  to  this  problem  of  inevitable 
monotony  in  work  the  test  of  Jesus,  Does  it  bring 
more  life  to  men?  Does  it  strengthen  the  in- 
stincts that  make  for  creation,  solidarity,  and 
free,  happy  intercourse?  then  we  shall  seek  to 
help  men  find  the  greatest  possible  interest  in 
what  they  are  doing  for  so  large  a  portion  of  their 
time. 

One  great  industrial  problem  seems  to  have 
been  directly  touched  upon  by  Jesus  in  one  of  his 

i  Interchurch  World  Movement  Report  on  The  Steel  Strike  of 
1919. 

2  Cf.  Wolf,  Robert  B.,  The  Creative  Workman.  Marot,  Heleu, 
The  Creative  Impulse  in  Industry. 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  57 

parables, — the  problem  of  unemployment.  We 
need  not  press  the  details  of  the  parable,  but 
clearly  the  same  wage  was  paid  to  men  who  could 
not  get  work  until  the  end  of  the  day  as  to  those 
who  had  worked  full  time.  The  workmen  received 
pay  for  the  work  they  would  have  done  if  they  had 
found  it.  Did  Jesus  know  the  terrible  anxiety  of 
the  wage-earner, — the  fear  of  unemployment? 
Today  members  of  trade  unions  who  can  secure 
regular  employment  more  easily  than  unorgan- 
ized workers,  report  that  in  normal  times  ten  per 
cent  of  their  membership  are  out  of  work.1  In  a 
year  of  business  depression,  the  number  of  un- 
employed in  the  United  States  has  been  estimated 
as  5,000,000.  Unemployment  means  hunger,  the 
loss  of  self-respect,  discouragement,  bitterness, 
and  an  increase  of  ' '  unemployables. ' '  It  cripples 
the  worker,  but  it  cripples  also  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity of  which  that  worker  is  an  integral  part. 
The  problem  is  so  pressing  that  solutions  are 
offered  by  all  who  are  concerned  about  our  indus- 
trial order.  They  include  the  plans  of  individual 
owners  for  the  protection  of  their  workers  against 
unemployment,  provisions  for  unemployment  in- 
surance, as  already  tried  in  England,  and  the 
more  far-reaching  suggestions  of  those  who  be- 
lieve in  industrial  democracy. 

"We  who  call  ourselves  Christians  must  test  the 
experiments  in  democracy  to  be  worked  out  in  in- 
dustry by  the  standard  of  Jesus,  Do  they  bring 
more  life  to  men,  women  and  children?    Do  they 

i  Cf .  U.  S.  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  Final  Report 
I.,  pp.  35-38,  103-117. 


58      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

make  for  greater  unity  among  people  who  are  all 
children  of  one  Father?     Those  in  authority  must 
put  themselves  in  the  place  of  the  workman  and 
realize  the  restrictions  felt  by  the  man  who  has 
no  voice  in  establishing  the  conditions  under  which 
he  must  work.     This  is  the  crux  of  the  problem 
in  industrial  relations.    Deeper  than  the  questions 
of  wages  and  hours,  at  the  root  of  all  the  unrest, 
lies  the  instinctive  desire  of  every  human  being 
to  be  free.    The  kindly  paternalism  of  the  em- 
ployer who  provides  bonuses,  clubrooms,  and  the- 
atrical entertainments  for  his  employees  may  be 
resented  as  deeply  as  the  indifference  of  another 
employer.     The  worker  has  the  same  instincts  as 
the  master.    He  has  the  same  desire  for  inde- 
pendence.   But  under  the  present  organization  of 
industry  it  is  only  when  the  workers  stand  to- 
gether in  a  union  that  they  can  have  any  control 
over  the  material  conditions  of  their  own  lives. 
The  individual  worker  in  an  unorganized  industry 
has  no  means  of  redress  for  any  injustice  that  may 
arise.    He  is  hired  or  fired  at  the  will  of  a  mana- 
ger or  foreman  who  must  usually  think  more 
about  production  than  about  the  life  of  any  one 
man  or  woman.    Industrial  autocracy  means  pres- 
sure from  above.     The  bondholders  expect  inter- 
est; the  stockholders  expect  dividends;  the  man- 
agers expect  salaries  far  in  excess  of  the  wages 
paid  to  the  laborers.    And  in  defense  against  the 
collective  bargaining  of  employers,  the  employees 
organize  for  collective  bargaining  on  their  own 
account.    We  may  say  that  it  is  presumption  on 
the  part  of  men  and  women  who  work  with  their 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  59 

hands  to  demand  any  share  in  the  control  of  an 
industry.  We  may  say  that  they  are  too  igno- 
rant to  be  fit  for  any  such  responsibility.  But  the 
fact  remains  that  by  the  very  foundations  of  our 
American  Republic  we  are  committed  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  democracy.  "We  believe  that  every  one 
has  an  equal  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  We  believe  that  democracy  is  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people.  If  the  people  are  not  educated  to  take 
any  responsibility  in  government,  then  they  must 
have  greater  opportunity  for  education.  Expe- 
rience and  psychology  are  teaching  us  that  the 
very  taking  of  responsibility  brings  the  ability  to 
take  more.  The  mind  and  spirit  grow  by  expres- 
sion. The  personality  develops  as  it  takes  part 
in  interesting,  creative  work.  It  is  only  by  re- 
pression that  the  life  of  a  person  is  stunted  and 
stultified. 

Judged  then  by  the  principle  of  Jesus  that  the 
life  and  personality  of  every  individual  is  of  su- 
preme value,  any  mechanical  system  that  means 
the  subordination  of  human  beings  to  provide 
more  property  for  other  human  beings  is  unchris- 
tian. Any  conditions  of  work  that  leave  the  body 
abnormally  tired,  the  mind  dulled  and  stupefied, 
or  the  spirit  broken,  are  contrary  to  the  will  of 
God  as  Jesus  understood  that  will.  Any  organi- 
zation that  gives  a  few  men  the  right  to  dominate 
over  the  many  does  not  provide  for  every  one  the 
abundant  life  that  Jesus  came  to  bring.  It  is  as 
bad  for  the  few  masters  as  for  the  many  servants. 
Power  to  control  the  lives  of  others  and  to  bestow 


60      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

largesse  upon  dependents  makes  for  egoism,  even 
if  the  self-love  is  disguised  as  charity.  It  is  far 
from  the  spirit  of  one  who  identified  himself  with 
carpenters  and  fishermen. 

Eecognizing  that  the  spirit  of  domination  is  un- 
just, groups  of  people  are  thinking  out  plans  by 
which  men  and  women  whose  hands  only  are 
wanted  for  work  may  yet  express  their  ideals. 
Such  an  experiment  as  that  of  the  Dutchess 
Bleachery  at  Wappingers  Falls,  New  York,  is 
worthy  of  the  most  thoughtful  consideration.  A 
Christian  minister  who  is  secretary  of  the  board 
of  operatives  in  the  bleachery  can  state  with  pride 
that  the  operatives  are  represented  on  the  board 
of  managers  and  on  the  board  of  directors,  and 
that  they  feel  a  personal  responsibility  for  the 
whole  undertaking.  "With  the  more  than  57  va- 
rieties of  ' industrial  democracy'  the  reading 
public  is  already  somewhat  familiar.  .  .  .  Even 
where  the  shop  committees  are  granted  nothing 
but  the  right  of  appeal  over  the  foreman  to  the 
management  or  over  the  local  manager  to  the 
general  management,  beneficial  results  have  been 
obtained.  ...  In  order  to  be  vital,  however,  any 
plan  should  include  representation  of  the  workers 
on  the  board  of  directors,  the  final  seat  of  author- 
ity in  company  management. " x  Other  experi- 
ments similar  to  this  one  are  being  tried  in  differ- 
ent plants,  but  democracy  can  never  be  fully 
worked  out  in  any  one  plant  until  its  principle 
is  recognized  in  all  industry.2 

i  Myers,  James  S.,  Dutchess  Bleachery,  Wappingers  Falls. 
2  Webb,  B.  &  S.,  Industrial  Democracy. 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY*  61 

This  principle  raises  questions  not  only  of  re- 
adjustments in  management,  but  of  ownership 
that  controls  the  means  of  producing  what  is  nec- 
essary for  all.  The  question  of  ownership  in  in- 
dustry is  a  matter  which  concerns  us  all. 
Whether  or  not  we  are  living  on  income  from 
investments,  we  are  all  using  in  our  daily  lives 
the  articles  made  by  workers  in  industry.  If  we 
have  at  one  time  or  another  profited  by  interest, 
then  we  have  acquiesced  in  the  present  system  of 
profits  and  wages.  Yet  our  Christianity  makes 
us  restive  when  we  realize  the  difference  between 
the  wage  that  comes  to  one  man  and  the  profit 
that  comes  to  another.  A  man  gives  his  work, 
the  best  hours  of  the  best  days  in  his  life,  and 
receives  back  what  is  often  barely  enough  for  sub- 
sistence. Another  man  gives  his  money  and 
receives  back  what  would  be  enough  for  the  sub- 
sistence of  fifty  men.  This  fact  means  that  we 
place  a  higher  value  on  money  than  on  the  per- 
sonality of  a  man.  People  who  do  not  pretend 
to  be  Christians  condemn  as  unethical  the  private 
ownership  that  controls  the  means  of  production. 
Should  the  church  lag  behind  in  condemning  what 
may  seem  to  the  next  generation  as  wrong  as 
slavery  now  seems  to  us?  It  is  already  nearly  a 
generation  since  Bishop  Westcott  wrote  words 
that  were  quoted  by  the  Lambeth  report,1  "Wage 
labor,  though  it  appears  to  be  an  inevitable  step 
in  the  evolution  of  society,  is  as  little  fitted  to  rep- 
resent finally  or  adequately  the  connection  of  man 

i  Lambeth   Conference   of  the   Anglican   Church,    19*20,   Report 
of  Committee  on  Industrial  and  Social  Problems. 


62      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

with  man  in  the  production  of  wealth  as,  in  earlier 
times,  slavery  or  serfdom."  We  do  not  need  any- 
new  commentary  on  the  gospel  record  to  show  us 
that  Jesus  would  not  accept  advantages  for  him- 
self at  the  expense  of  others.  If  we  have  some- 
thing of  his  clear  self-knowledge  we  shall  not  be 
afraid  to  face  this  problem  of  industrial  owner- 
ship, to  test  it  by  the  standard:  Does  it  give  to 
every  one  equal  opportunities  for  education,  work, 
play  and  worship?  and  to  let  our  conduct  be 
guided  by  the  answer  we  make. 

If,  as  individuals,  we  see  injustice  that  is  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  then  we  are  bound  to 
try  and  awaken  the  conscience  of  all  Christian 
people  to  understand  the  ethics  of  the  problem. 
It  is  a  searching  test  that  we  apply.  Can  Chris- 
tians exalt  themselves  and  consent  to  the  degra- 
dation of  others?  Can  we  claim  leisure  for  wor- 
ship when  that  leisure  is  paid  for  by  some  one 
who  has  never  had  any  leisure  for  recreation  or 
refreshment  or  education?  Can  Christians  ex- 
press themselves  in  all  the  fullness  of  life  that  is 
brought  by  social,  educational  and  religious  priv- 
ileges, when  drudging  men  and  women  are  too 
tired  to  think?  Can  "members  of  Christ' '  be 
masters  and  exercise  authority  over  subordinates? 
Can  followers  of  Jesus  own,  privately,  the  public 
utilities  on  which  all  the  people  depend? 

Our  answers  to  these  questions  will  determine 
what  we  do.  An  individual  may  decide  for  him- 
self that  he  will  live  on  what  he  earns  by  some 
socially  useful  labor,  that  he  will  not  exercise  any 
authority  that  makes  barriers  between  himself 


I 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  63 

and  others,  and  that  he  will  not  profit  by  the  labor 
of  other  men.  If  a  person  makes  this  decision 
because  he  is  a  Christian,  it  bears  witness  to  all 
who  know  him  that  he  is  sincere,  and  that  he  hon- 
estly seeks  to  live  today  the  kind  of  life  that 
Jesus  lived.  How  much  greater,  then,  would  the 
witness  be  if  all  members  of  the  Christian  Church 
determined  so  to  live !  If  Christians  of  different 
names  came  together  in  a  great  gathering  and 
openly  repudiated  wealth  and  power  as  contrary 
to  the  principles  of  Jesus,  the  world  outside  the 
church  would  be  more  ready  to  recognize  that 
Jesus  was  sent  by  a  loving  Father.  "When  even 
email  groups  within  the  church  stand  for  the  kind 
of  industrial  democracy  that  will  bring  greater 
opportunity  for  life  to  thousands  of  men  and 
women  and  children,  then  non-Christians  will  be 
more  able  to  believe  in  one  who  came  to  give  life. 
Yet  we  hesitate.  We  say  that  the  church  has 
a  social  message  to  deliver  on  the  questions  of 
marriage  and  divorce.  We  are  glad  now  that 
some  of  the  ministers  in  days  before  the  Civil 
War  were  courageous  enough  to  condemn  slavery 
as  unchristian.  But  when  social  service  commis- 
sions would  consider  the  relations  of  men  in  in- 
dustry as  a  problem  of  Christian  ethics,  there  are 
those  who  say  cautiously,  "The  primary  business 
of  the  church  is  to  deal  with  personal  religion. 
We  must  uphold  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual 
and  not  concern  ourselves  with  economic  issues. 
Our  Lord  did  not  take  part  in  political  causes.' 9 
We  forget  what  those  outside  the  church  are 
more  apt  to  remember,  that  Jesus  was  concerned 


64      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

with  human  life  according  to  God's  intention.  He 
did  not  separate  life  into  secular  and  religious, 
material  and  spiritual.  He  knew  that  men  can- 
not talk  to  God  unless  they  have  some  leisure  for 
prayer*  When  he  was  talking  of  spiritual  things, 
he  stopped  to  feed  the  people  who  were  hungry. 
He  had  not  a  good  word  to  say  for  the  possession 
of  wealth  or  the  wielding  of  power.  His  very 
presence  in  the  house  of  Zacchseus  made  the  rich 
man  decide  to  give  up  at  least  half  of  all  his 
goods.  And  the  presence  of  Jesus  still  makes 
men  restive  about  the  possession  of  property  that 
has  been  called  "improperly."  "When  that  rest- 
iveness  bears  fruit  in  action  people  will  take 
knowledge  of  Christians  "that  they  have  been 
with  Jesus.' '  When  the  church  sets  herself  to 
demand  economic  justice  with  the  same  fearless 
devotion  that  prompted  the  early  missionaries  to 
start  forth  on  their  adventure,  then  she  will  see 
the  Kingdom  of  God  come  with  power. 


Questions  for  Discussion 

1.    a.    In  a  modern  industry  the  following  points  have 
to  be  considered : 

a.  Selection  and  training  of  workers. 

b.  Promotion. 

c.  Avoidance  of  unjust  dismissals. 

d.  Scientific  study  of  production  (raw  mate- 
rials, markets,  processes  and  interest  in  work, 
analysis  of  costs,  etc.). 

e.  Hours. 

f.  Wages. 

g.  Supplemental  wage  policies   (profit-sharing, 


IN  THE  COMMUNITY  65 

provision  against  unemployment,  sick  bene- 
fits, old  age  pensions,  death  benefits). 
h.  Safety  and  health  provisions. 
i.  Agencies  for  discussion  and  bargaining  (in- 
dustrial representation  plans), 
j.  Housing  of  workers. 
Having  Christian  principles  in  mind,  which  of 
these  points  do  you  think  should  be  decided  by 
the    management,    representing    the    ownership, 
and  which  by  the  wage-earners? 
h.    Should  wage-earners  have  access  to  the  company 
books  ? 
2.    Does  an  economic  order  based  on  private  ownership 
of  the  means  of  production  violate  the   Christian 
principle  that  every  human  life  is  of  infinite  and 
equal  value?    If  so,  at  what  points? 


Chapter  Four 
PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES 

The  emphasis  that  Jesus  places  on  the  value  of 
every  individual  life  and  his  love  that  goes  out  to 
every  person  of  every  sort  is  a  quite  different 
matter  from  the  pagan's  easy  acceptance  of  any 
human  quality  as  equal  to  any  other  human  qual- 
ity. At  every  step  in  his  life,  Jesus  showed  an 
unbounded  faith  in  the  possibilities  of  human  de- 
velopment. But  He  challenges  the  best  that  is  in 
us  and  tells  us  in  unmistakable  terms  which  qual- 
ities belong  to  the  new  age  and  which  qualities 
must  be  outgrown. 

The  relation  of  interior  quality  and  external 
conditions  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  has  been  vari- 
ously interpreted,  just  as  the  phrase  Kingdom  of 
God,  or  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  has  been  variously 
defined.1  To  some  the  Kingdom  seems  wholly  a 
matter  of  inward  quality.  It  is  present  now  in 
hearts  that  have  a  desire  to  follow  Christ  or,  to 
others,  it  is  foreshadowed  now  and  will  have  its 
clear  manifestation  only  in  a  life  beyond  this  pres- 
ent world.  To  some  the  Kingdom  of  God  seems  to 
be  co-extensive  with  the  Christian  Church,  either 
with  the  whole  number  of  the  baptized  or  with  one 

i  The  four  phases  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  presented  here  were 
suggested  by  Prof.  Ernest  F.  Scott  in  lectures  on  New  Testa- 
ment theology. 

66 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  67 

or  more  of  the  organized  churches.  To  others  the 
Kingdom  of  God  means  a  new  age  when  human 
society  will  be  transformed.  Each  of  these  in- 
terpretations can  be  defended  but  none  seems  by 
itself  adequate  to  convey  the  richness  of  Christ's 
teaching.  The  consummation  hereafter  implies  a 
continuation  and  perfection  of  a  life  begun  in  this 
world.  The  inward  quality  must  express  itself  in 
action;  if  the  Christian  quality  is  genuine  it  will 
discern  the  evil  in  the  world  and  will  find  a  way 
to  transform  the  Christian's  relationships  in  such 
matters  as  earning  and  spending,  and  class  divi- 
sions, and  national  ideals.  The  members  of  a 
church,  like  the  disciples  who  followed  Jesus,  have 
a  better  opportunity  than  others  to  understand 
his  purpose  and  share  in  his  life  of  communion 
with  the  Father;  but  the  disciples  faced  tempta- 
tion, and  Jesus  pointed  out  at  various  times  the 
special  sins  into  which  they  would  be  likely  to  fall. 
They  were  to  be  judged  by  their  fruits.  They 
were  messengers,  leaven,  light,  salt.  But  the  salt 
was  to  purify  the  world,  and  lives  carrying  out 
the  words  of  Jesus  would  take  precedence  of  those 
who  merely  called  on  his  name.  Jesus  indicates 
that  the  disciples  might  fail,  but  that  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom  was  sure.  Until  the  Christian 
Church  has  transformed  the  world  it  does  not 
satisfy  one's  conception  of  the  greatness  of  the 
Kingdom.  But  neither  is  the  thought  of  a  new 
age  on  earth  adequate  to  convey  the  idea  of  the 
Kingdom  apart  from  the  fact  that  Jesus  expects 
the  new  age  to  develop  as  the  qualities  it  de- 
mands are  present  in  a  constantly  widening  circle 


6&      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  individuals  who  depend  upon  God  in  prayer  and 
meditation  and  who  find  the  significance  of  human 
life  in  the  belief  that  the  essential  man  is  eternal 
and  immortal. 

The  Jews  among  whom  Jesus  lived  and  to  whom 
He  spoke  had  already  a  conception  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  upon  which  Jesus  was  building  as  He 
taught.  They  believed  that  God  would  overthrow 
the  heathen  empire  and  rule  on  earth  through  a 
chosen  one,  anointed  as  his  special  representative. 
The  Pharisees  looked  forward  to  the  supremacy 
of  the  Jewish  Law  and  a  nation  dominated  by 
guardians  of  the  sacred  traditions  of  the  past. 
They  did  not  expect  social  changes  that  would 
disturb  their  own  security.  The  multitudes,  on 
the  other  hand,  looked  for  deliverance  from  injus- 
tice and  an  overturning  of  the  power  held  by  the 
rich  and  the  mighty.  When  we  attempt  to 
analyze  the  relation  of  interior  quality  and  ex- 
ternal conditions  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  we  do 
well  to  remember  that  with  this  difference  in  their 
Messianic  hopes  the  Pharisees  crucified  Jesus  but 
the  common  people  heard  Him  gladly. 

In  fact,  our  division  of  life  into  spiritual  and 
material  expresses  one  of  those  half-truths  that 
obscure  the  simplicity  of  Jesus '  teaching.  We 
know  very  well  from  our  own  experience  that  the 
thoughts  and  affections  and  desires  and  pur- 
poses which  we  might  call  the  spiritual  part  of 
our  lives  are  a  composite  to  which  have  contrib- 
uted the  standards  of  the  group  in  which  we  have 
been  brought  up,  our  material  surroundings,  such 
instincts  as  hunger  and  display,  the  impressions 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  69 

that  have  reached  us  through  the  senses,  and  any 
number  of  other  influences  which  are  neither 
wholly  spiritual  nor  wholly  material.  And  mod- 
ern psychology  is  leading  us  around  by  another 
way  to  see  the  unity  of  personality  which  Jesus 
assumes  that  we  understand.  Did  He  not  indi- 
cate that  conditions  affect  character  when  He  bade 
us  pray  to  be  delivered  from  evil?1  He  refers 
explicitly  to  " occasions  of  stumbling"  and  He  says 
again  that  before  the  consummation  of  the  King- 
dom ' l  all  things  that  cause  stumbling ' ' 2  must  be 
cast  out  along  with  "them  that  do  iniquity.' '  On 
the  other  hand,  He  expects  character  to  react  on 
conditions.  The  new  kinds  of  relationships  that 
inevitably  develop  in  a  group  alive  with  the  spirit 
that  Jesus  sets  forth  will  naturally  create  new 
social  structures.  And  a  society  functioning 
according  to  the  standards  laid  down  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God  will  express  in  its  economic  re- 
lationships the  qualities  which  distinguish  citizens 
of  the  Kingdom.  Repeatedly  we  are  reminded 
that  the  things  we  do  are  the  test  of  our  disciple- 
ship.  We  must  begin  immediately  to  live  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  Jesus,  and  we  must  expect 
conflict  with  the  standards  of  the  world  until  so- 
ciety as  a  whole  is  renewed  according  to  those 
principles.  Concretely,  what  does  this  involve  in 
relation  to  the  three  great  issues  before  the  world : 
wealth,  domination  by  one  group  over  another, 
and  race  conflicts? 
The  Christian  who  attempts  to  apply  the  teach- 

iMatt.  18:  7. 
2  Matt.  13 :  41. 


70       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ing  and  method  of  Jesus  to  the  problems  of  wealth 
and  domination  in  their  complex  modern  form 
must  first  weigh  a  great  mass  of  popular  belief. 
If  he  has  been  brought  up  in  a  family  owning  in- 
vestments, large  or  small,  or  having  a  social 
standing  that  identifies  it  with  men  in  business  or 
professions  and  not  with  manual  workers,  he 
naturally  thinks  of  private  capital  as  the  means 
by  which  the  development  of  modern  industry  has 
been  accomplished.  The  thrift  that  does  not 
spend  but  invests  has  made  possible  the  building 
of  railroads,  the  sinking  of  mine  shafts,  the  erec- 
tion of  furnaces  for  the  making  of  steel,  the  man- 
ufacture of  the  innumerable  machines  by  which 
are  carried  on  the  production  and  distribution  of 
things  necessary  for  the  millions  of  human  beings 
who  now  inhabit  the  earth.  It  is  the  belief  of  his 
class  that  only  as  a  man  or  a  group  of  men,  work- 
ing with  the  chance  of  great  rewards,  can  freely 
measure  wits  and  strength  against  the  wits  and 
strength  of  other  men  and  groups  of  men  does  the 
ablest  and  strongest  group  emerge  for  the  leader- 
ship and  management  of  society.  To  him  it  seems 
necessary  that  as  many  individuals  as  possible 
should  save  and  invest,  since  capital  is  essential 
for  the  large-scale  production  without  which  the 
race  would  starve,  and  he  sees  no  way  of  procur- 
ing capital  except  through  private  investment. 
He  is  inclined  to  accept  as  inevitable  society's  de- 
pendence on  conflict  and  the  desire  for  profit,  and 
he  considers  that  turbulent  workers  who  for  one 
reason  or  another  refuse  to  work,  and  theorists 
who  encourage  them  with  talk  of  wild  schemes  of 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  71 

economic    reorganization,    are    undermining    the 
foundations  of  society. 

But  a  Christian  can  never  depend  on  the  current 
opinion  of  his  class.  He  must  overcome  an  innate 
reluctance  to  question  the  soundness  of  reasoning 
that  justifies  the  material  advantages  which,  on 
the  whole,  he  and  his  friends  enjoy.  It  is  of 
course  difficult  to  escape  the  outlook  of  one's 
group.  And  when  the  man  who  benefits  from  the 
present  order  faces  the  development  of  the  world 
from  slavery  to  wage  labor  and  from  feudalism 
to  industrialism,  he  stresses  the  points  in  which 
the  present  is  better  than  the  past  and  does  not 
easily  imagine  that  the  problems  of  the  present 
require  for  their  solution  further  changes  in  the 
basis  of  society.  The  press  does  not  enlighten 
him  for  it  is  deliberately  committed  to  the  satis- 
factoriness  of  the  present  order,  and  it  does  not 
tell  him  all  the  facts  he  needs  to  know.  In  school 
and  college  courses  the  essential  soundness  of 
private  capital  has  been  assumed.  And  when  he 
chances  to  learn  of  potatoes  rotting  in  the  fields 
in  the  United  States  while  people  starve  in  Eu- 
rope or  of  vast  numbers  of  unemployed  in  every 
country  organized  on  the  basis  of  private  capital 
while  millions  are  deprived  of  the  right  kind  of 
dwellings,  the  right  kind  of  food,  and  the  cloth- 
ing they  need  to  keep  themselves  clean  and  warm, 
his  associates  in  business,  the  newspaper  he  reads, 
and  pamphlets  and  books  fed  out  to  the  public  by 
the  possessing  class  do  not  encourage  him  to  go 
deeper  than  the  results  of  war,  the  disorganization 
of  credits,  and  the  unreasonable  demands  of  labor. 


72      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

As  a  Christian  he  knows,  of  course,  that  the  self- 
interest  to  which  the  economic  order  makes  its 
primary  appeal  is  absolutely  foreign  to  the  quali- 
ties set  before  us  by  Jesus.  But  he  finds  many 
ready  to  assist  him  in  reconciling  his  religion  and 
his  livelihood.  He  may  either  set  business  off  as 
a  separate  non-moral  realm  with  which  religion 
has  no  concern  beyond  stimulating  him  to  play 
squarely  according  to  the  rules  of  the  game;  or 
he  may  admit  that  the  economic  order  ought  to  be 
based  on  the  principles  of  Jesus  but  insist  that 
until  human  nature  is  changed  it  must  continue  to 
depend  on  love  of  power  and  the  desire  for  profit. 
In  the  meanwhile,  he  must  support  a  family  and 
he  postpones  indefinitely  the  attempt  to  apply  in 
his  own  business  life  such  teachings  of  Jesus  as 
seem  Utopian  and  unpractical. 

The  opinions  into  which  the  Christian  who  be- 
longs to  the  wage-earning  class  naturally  drifts 
are  less  clearly  predictable.  He  also  reads  the 
newspapers  that  preach  the  tradition  of  bound- 
less opportunity  and  he  has  been  put  through  the 
schools  that  uphold  things  as  they  are.  He  may 
therefore  desire  only  to  work  hard  and  climb  up 
out  of  the  ranks  of  wage-earners,  indifferent  to 
the  condition  of  those  less  well  equipped  for 
the  struggle  than  he  is  himself,  and  if  he  succeeds 
he  will  become  one  of  the  most  vehement  defend- 
ers of  the  present  system.  But  he  may  have 
found  no  opportunity  because  he  has  been  pitted 
against  an  employer  who  goes  beyond  the  usual 
standard  in  hard  domination  and  mean  treatment, 
or  he  may  have  chanced  to  come  into  a  highly 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  73 

organized  trade.  Then  lie  will  be  likely  to  want 
the  organization  of  his  fellow  workers  in  a  labor 
union  of  the  older  type,  not  searching  the  under- 
lying principles  of  society  but  demanding  a  larger 
share  in  the  product  and  some  control  over  the 
conditions  of  work. 

Or,  again,  he  may  have  been  thrown  with  a  re- 
bellious group  that  considers  itself  outraged  and 
disinherited  because  little  by  little  the  working 
class  has  lost  the  ownership  of  its  tools ;  without 
the  machinery  built  by  others '  capital  their  hands 
are  idle  and  their  power  to  produce  things  needed 
for  society  is  destroyed.  He  sees  that  society  is 
organized  on  the  basis  of  self-interest,  but  he  sees 
also  the  power  of  class  interest.  And  he  inter- 
prets political  happenings,  court  decisions,  most 
of  the  current  legislation,  the  insistence  on  "  loy- 
alty' '  in  school  teachers  and  college  professors, 
the  continued  imprisonment  of  men  convicted  as 
political  offenders  during  the  war,  and  the  indif- 
ference of  the  churches  to  the  possibility  of  eco- 
nomic reconstruction  as  symptoms  of  the  con- 
scious solidarity  and  self-interest  of  the  owners 
of  capital.  And  labor  unions  and  strikes  and  the 
general  restlessness  of  labor  are  to  him  symptoms 
of  an  awakening  consciousness,  on  the  part  of 
wage-earners,  of  the  fundamental  cleavage  of  in- 
terest between  themselves  and  the  owners.  He 
tries  to  hasten  the  understanding  of  working  class 
solidarity  and  to  guide  the  struggle  between  the 
classes  toward  a  deliberate  reconstruction  of  so- 
ciety on  a  basis  from  which  private  ownership  of 
capital  is  eliminated.    But  like  the  defender  of 


74      JESU.S  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

capitalism  he  is  likely  to  be  obsessed  with  the 
importance  of  self-interest.  He  tends  to  distrust 
the  motive  of  any  employer  who  experiments  with 
new  methods  of  management.  He  questions  the 
sincerity  of  churches  organized  in  the  name  of 
Christ  but  supported  and  managed  by  men  who 
are  actively  defending  and  largely  profiting  from 
a  capitalist  order.  He  sees  in  Jesus  the  great- 
est of  proletarian  leaders  that  the  world  has  ever 
known  and  he  longs  quite  sincerely  for  a  day  when 
class  divisions  will  disappear  and  class  solidarity 
will  give  place  to  a  human  unity  in  which  the  per- 
sonal qualities  that  he  reverences  in  Jesus  may 
have  a  chance  to  develop.  But  he  thinks  that  the 
oppressed  workers  have  submitted  long  enough, 
and  the  experiences  of  the  struggle  and  the  philos- 
ophy of  his  comrades  who  are  not  Christians 
(though  they  also  reverence  the  greatness  of 
Jesus)  tend  to  postpone  the  attempt  to  apply  in 
the  conflict  today  certain  qualities  that  he  knows 
will  be  needed  in  an  order  from  which  opportu- 
nity for  profit  is  eliminated.  And  he  can  find 
some  solace  for  his  inconsistency  in  the  thought 
that  devotion  to  a  class  solidarity  consecrated  to 
the  overturning  of  injustice  is  a  higher  quality 
than  personal  self-interest  or  devotion  to  a  class 
interest  that  would  perpetuate  a  system  based  on 
profit. 

Does  any  one  of  these  group  conceptions  satisfy 
our  understanding  of  what  Jesus  expects  us  to 
be?  Even  assuming  that  extreme  poverty  might 
be  relieved,  unemployment  reduced  and  the  unem- 
ployed provided  for,  public  interest  honestly  con- 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  75 

served,  and  in  fact  all  the  current  evils  whose  ex- 
istence no  one  can  deny  eliminated,  can  the  Chris- 
tian acquiesce  in  the  exaltation  of  self-interest  as 
the  necessary  basis  of  society  without  denying 
the  fundamental  truths  of  the  life  and  teachings 
of  Jesus?  Can  we  enthrone  covetousness  and 
think  we  are  serving  Christ? 

How  completely  Jesus  understood  our  difficul- 
ties !  He  knew  that  public  opinion  voiced  by  re- 
spected citizens  would  guide  our  thinking,  and 
that  the  desire  for  security  in  a  world  apparently 
dominated  by  evil1  would  obscure  for  us  the  re- 
ality of  our  dependence  upon  God  and  tempt  us 
to  supply  our  physical  needs  at  the  cost  of  our 
ethical  integrity.  Poisoned  by  this  "leaven  of 
the  Pharisees ' '  we  would  unwittingly  deny  Christ ; 
even  worse  than  denying  Christ,  we  would  deny 
the  essential  supremacy  of  goodness.  Witnessing 
to  Christ  might  seem  to  bring  disaster,  but  actu- 
ally it  would  bring  us  nearer  to  God  and  give  us 
a  wisdom  that  we  cannot  learn  in  any  other 
way. 

For  the  patience  of  Jesus,  that  accepts  the  cross 
for  Himself  and  for  his  disciples,  expresses  a  vision 
of  our  relation  to  God  and  our  relation  to  each 
other  so  clear  and  so  far-reaching  that  we  are 
only  beginning  to  learn  what  it  means.  We  are 
children  of  God,  a  great  human  family.  That  is 
good  which  unites  us  with  God  and  with  each 
other,  and  that  is  evil  which  makes  us  forget  God 
and  leads  us  to  draw  apart  from  one  another. 
Qualities  are  tested  by  their  effect  on  both  re- 

iLuke  12:  1-12. 


76      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

lationships.  There  is  that  in  us  which  matters 
more  than  body  or  food  or  the  beauty  of  the 
world  or  the  good  opinion  of  other  men,  and  this 
essential  "life"  grows  and  survives  as  it  seeks 
to  contribute  to  the  life  of  the  human  family  the 
desire  for  God  and  the  desire  for  human  unity 
in  God  for  which  it  was  created.  So  Jesus  tells 
us  quite  explicitly  the  kind  of  persons  we  might 
be,  and  if  we  wonder  about  any  of  his  words  the 
meaning  becomes  clear  when  we  consider  the  kind 
of  man  Jesus  was  Himself.  Like  Him  we  are  to 
be  poor  and  clean  of  desire  for  things  and  privi- 
leges; sorrowing,  so  long  as  there  is  suffering 
and  injustice  and  evil ;  gentle  and  loving,  not  seek- 
ing distinction  nor  power,  not  judging  others  un- 
til we  are  free  from  sin;  devoted  to  righteous- 
ness, with  a  hunger  and  thirst  for  personal  holi- 
ness and  justice  for  all;  actively  compassionate, 
with  imagination  and  understanding;  single- 
minded  in  purpose,  with  no  selfishness  cutting 
across  our  nature;  strong  enough  in  the  spirit 
of  love  to  arouse  a  desire  for  unity  among  those 
who  are  divided;  and  proving  our  sincerity  by 
refusing  to  compromise  when  we  are  laughed  at 
or  misunderstood  or  actively  persecuted  for  be- 
ing different  from  those  who  reject  the  way  of 
Jesus. 

To  the  wealthy  men  of  his  own  day  Jesus  said, 
"So  therefore  whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  doth 
not  renounce  all  his  possessions,  he  cannot  be  my 
disciple."1  He  told  them  that  the  man  with  a 
niggardly  spirit  lived  in  total  darkness.    He  said 

iLuke  14:  33. 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  77 

no  man  could  serve  both  God  and  riches.1  He 
told  a  story  about  the  men  who  insulted  their 
host  by  staying  away  from  the  supper  after  they 
had  accepted  his  invitation ; 2  and  the  reasons  that 
sound  trivial  and  impossible  for  such  a  failure  in 
courtesy  are  still  a  true  parable  for  the  excuses 
that  church  members  make  to  themselves  for  fail- 
ure to  serve  God.  To  the  man  who  thought  him- 
self defrauded  of  his  inheritance,3  Jesus  gave  the 
principle,  Beware  of  covetousness.  Much  energy 
and  centuries  of  failure  have  gone  into  an  effort 
to  "  spiritualize ' '  these  words.  And  proof  texts 
are  adduced  to  show  that  Jesus  did  not  mean 
them  after  all.  But  consider  his  own  way  of 
life,  persecuted  by  the  wealthy  and  powerful.  We 
know  how  He  dwelt  on  the  importance  of  doing 
instead  of  merely  feeling  and  talking.  And  we 
must  know,  if  we  are  quite  honest  with  ourselves, 
that  Jesus  not  only  meant  what  He  said  about 
riches  but  tried  to  make  his  disciples  see  that 
they  could  not  afford  to  be  rich  because  posses- 
sions tend  to  separate  men.  The  desire  to  pos- 
sess is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  desire  to  share. 
Keeping  possession  of  that  which  another  needs 
is  a  direct  contradiction  of  love. 

And  wealth  means  power.  It  may  come  as  the 
reward  of  ability  or  it  may  come  through  cir- 
cumstances. Many  are  saying  that  it  comes  today 
only  through  an  unjust  division  of  the  product 
of  labor.  In  any  case,  it  means  power;  oppor- 
tunity to  seem  generous  without  sacrificing  secur- 
ity; opportunity  to  support  "causes"  or  to  in- 

iMatt.  6:  23.  2  Luke  14:  16-24.  3  Luke  12:  13-15. 


78       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

dulge  in  luxury  as  the  fancy  prefers ;  opportunity 
to  develop  one's  individuality  and  work  deliber- 
ately for  leadership.  But  assume  the  best  use 
of  wealth  and  power;  how  do  they  fit  with  the 
way  of  Jesus?  UI  am  in  the  midst  of  you  as  he 
that  serveth."  "The  kings  of  the  Gentiles  have 
lordship  over  them;  and  they  that  have  authority 
over  them  claim  the  title  i Benef actor.'  *  But  ye 
shall  not  be  so :  but  he  that  is  the  greater  among 
you,  let  him  prove  himself  to  be  the  attendant; 
and  he  that  is  chief,  as  he  that  doth  serve."  "Ex- 
cept ye  turn,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."2  Is  it  enough  to  use  the  power  of 
wealth  beneficently?  Can  we  prove  that  we  are 
servants  when  we  retain  wealth  that  makes  us 
masters? 

The  race  conflicts  of  today  are  embittered  by 
the  poisons  of  greed  and  desire  for  power.  As 
we  see  more  clearly  that  our  business  world  is 
athirst  not  for  righteousness  but  for  profits,  and 
as  we  follow  the  trail  of  this  motive  out  through 
the  corruption  in  government,  through  the  hidden 
springs  of  secret  diplomacy,  through  the  fine 
words  of  national  defense,  through  the  noble  pose 
of  the  white  man's  burden,  we  begin  to  see  how 
far  we  are  from  the  human  unity  for  which  Jesus 
Christ  lived  and  died.  We  are  unable  as  yet  to 
know  the  true  nature  of  our  brothers;  we  are 
hindered  from  learning  their  inner  history,  their 
group  purposes,  their  aspirations.  A  people  is 
represented  to  us   as   a  deadly  competitor  for 

i  Luke  22 :  24-27.  2  Matt.  18 :  3. 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  79 

empire;  as  a  turbulent,  incompetent  rebel;  as  a 
swarthy  giant  that  must  be  kept  dozing  lest  it 
disturb  those  who  rule  because  they  hold  letters 
patent  from  the  Almighty  to  dominate  the  globe ; 
as  a  robber  band  upon  whom  fair  dealing  is 
wasted;  as  a  peril,  because  it  is  yellow;  or  as  a 
devil,  because  it  is  bolshevik.  "We  white  people 
do  not  even  face  the  facts  -about  Negro  citizens 
in  this  country,  but  we  overlook  the  injustices 
from  which  they  continually  suffer  and  the  great 
strides  of  progress  they  have  made;  we  magnify 
tenfold  their  immorality  and  their  lawlessness, 
while  we  tolerate  among  ourselves  a  double 
standard  of  morals  for  men  and  women  and  a 
mob  spirit  that  aggressively  defies  the  principles 
of  our  Constitution.  Like  the  Jews  in  Palestine 
and  like  every  other  nation  the  world  has  known, 
we  assume,  each  of  us,  the  superiority  of  our  own 
group  to  other  groups. 

This  contempt  is  fanned  now  and  then  into  a 
fury  of  war,  and  " Christians' '  join  in  the  killing. 
Jesus  had  much  to  say  to  the  Jews  about  the 
faith  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  part  they  would  play 
in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  conception  He  had 
of  one  human  family  has  found  its  way  into  the 
phrasing  of  our  prayers  but  not  yet  into  the  mind 
of  the  Christian  Church. 

Dimly  we  are  beginning  to  realize  that  the 
group  loyalties  of  the  race  are  capable  of  a  finer, 
more  consciously  ethical  development.  This  is 
another  of  the  truths  assumed  by  Jesus  to  which 
the  psychologist  is  now  pointing  us  from  a  differ- 
ent angle.    Jesus  cared  intensely  for  the  city  of 


80      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Jerusalem,  apostrophizing  it  in  sorrow  for  its 
moral  failure.  The  purpose  of  his  life  was  the 
founding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  To  a  trans- 
formed society  is  the  promise  of  material  bless- 
ings. The  qualities  He  lived  and  the  principles 
He  taught  involve  what  Eichard  Roberts  calls 
"organic  ethics,' '  an  interrelationship  of  social 
group  and  individual  in  which  the  group  and  the 
individual  are  both  morally  responsible,  both  suf- 
fering for  the  sins  of  both,  each  finding  life  in 
the  life  of  the  other. 

Must  not  the  group  then  consciously  construct 
its  machinery  of  living  on  an  ethical  basis  ?  Must 
we  not  as  a  nation  find  the  path  of  repentance 
and  confession  of  sin!  Until  nations  learn  to  be 
poor  and  gentle  and  athirst  for  justice,  even  to 
be  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  we  cannot 
find  realization  here  of  the  joyous  abundant  life 
that  Christ  promises.  We  do  not  need  to  wait 
for  the  regeneration  of  each  individual  nor  for 
elaboration  of  psychological  theory  on  the  work- 
ings of  the  group  mind,  to  strive,  as  part  of  our 
Christian  calling,  to  purify  the  nation's  soul. 

Whatever  our  creed  or  our  prayers  or  our 
appreciation  of  the  greatness  of  human  nature 
or  our  hope  of  some  miracle  of  a  redeemed  soci- 
ety, none  of  us  as  individuals  can  evade  certain 
questions.  Do  I  trust  God  enough  to  believe  that 
the  race  can  be  fed  and  clothed  and  housed  by 
mutual  service  without  conflict  and  greed?  Do 
I  really  want  to  know  what  I  ought  to  do  about 
my  own  relation  to  an  unchristian  social  order, 
with  the  possibility  of  facing  insecurity,  aliena- 


PRINCIPLES  AND  QUALITIES  81 

tion  from  my  group,  lack  of  understanding,  and 
even  physical  suffering?  Do  I  share  the  faith 
Jesus  lived  and  taught  that  goodness — imagina- 
tive, constructive,  actively  loving,  unyielding  good- 
ness— embodied  in  the  individual  lives  of  his  dis- 
ciples will  rouse  the  goodness  in  others  who  seem 
to  us  evil  and  will  spread  the  contagion  of  belief 
that  righteousness  is  fundamental  in  the  universe? 
Do  I  expect  Christ  to  accomplish  without  the 
active  cooperation  of  every  one  of  his  disciples 
(including  myself)  the  transformation  of  our  re- 
lationships from  the  self-interest  on  which  the 
world  depends  to  the  desire  to  serve  on  which  the 
Kingdom  of  God  depends? 

Questions  for  Discussion 

1.  List  the  qualities  of  Christian  character  described 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  state,  giving 
reasons,  which  you  think  are  encouraged  and  which 
you  think  are  discouraged  by  the  daily  surroundings 
of  the  following: 

a.  A  young  man  who  is  working  up  to  the  position 
of  business  executive. 

o.  A  married  woman  with  money  and  social  posi- 
tion. 

c.  A  physician  dependent  on  private  practice. 

d.  An  unmarried  woman  with  a  moderate  income 
from  investments. 

2.  Can  a  Christian  consistently  live  on  income  from 
investments  ? 

3.  "What  motive  for  work  may  we  reasonably  expect  to 
substitute  for  the  motive  of  competition  for  private 
gain? 

4.  What  form  of  organization  in  industry  do  you  think 
would  best  provide  for  the  fullest  possible  develop- 
ment of  every  individual  in  society  ? 


Chapter  Five 
THE  CONFLICT 

A  young  leader,  only  thirty  years  old,  and  a 
company  of  twelve  obscure  men  seem  to  form 
an  insignificant  group  when  we  contrast  them 
with  our  campaigns,  our  committees  of  influential 
persons,  our  letterheads,  our  offices  and  stenogra- 
phers. Yet  the  leader  expected  the  twelve  men 
to  start  a  movement  that  would  transform  the 
world,  and  establish  on  earth  the  kind  of  brother- 
hood that  would  express  the  will  of  a  loving 
Father.  He  expected  them  to  change  the  accepted 
standards  of  a  society  in  which  claims  to  distinc- 
tion were  based  upon  wealth  and  power  and  racial 
superiority.  They  were  to  bring  about  a  funda- 
mental change,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but  by  the 
firm,  quiet  persistence  of  united  action.  They 
were  to  act  as  leaven  until  all  society  was  per- 
meated and  transformed  by  the  new  life.  He  Him- 
self would  show  them  the  way  by  meeting  with 
a  free,  clear  spirit  the  prejudices  of  those  who 
lived  by  tradition.  He  would  bear  no  grudge 
against  the  persons  with  whom  He  disagreed,  but 
He  would  define  openly  the  issue  between  his 
way  and  theirs,  and  trust  his  followers  to  choose 
as  He  chose. 

So  Jesus  defined  the  issue  as  a  problem  of  covet- 
ousness,  of  desire  for  domination,  and  of  race 

82 


THE  CONFLICT  83 

prejudice.  He  would  reveal  to  the  people  who 
expected  deliverance  from  poverty  and  the  putting 
down  of  the  mighty  from  their  seats  how  they 
could  find  justice  and  mercy  and  faith.  As  a 
man  among  those  underneath,  He  would  lead  men, 
without  bitterness  or  hatred  of  persons,  to  oppose 
wealth  and  power  and  pride.  He  would  not  sep- 
arate life  into  compartments,  because  his  Father 
saw  human  life  as  a  whole.  The  relation  of  a 
man  to  his  neighbor  should  be  the  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  his  attitude  towards  God. 

If  Jesus  had  not  been  ready  for  the  conflict 
between  his  new  way  and  the  old  traditions,  He 
would  not  have  joined  such  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment as  that  of  John  the  Baptist.  John  was 
preaching  against  an  established  order  which  pro- 
tected property  at  the  expense  of  life.  One  who 
thought  clearly,  as  Jesus  did,  could  not  have  mis- 
taken the  signs  of  the  times.  He  must  have  known 
that  a  leader  who  talked  as  John  talked  would 
be  regarded  by  the  authorities  as  a  dangerous 
character.  If  another  leader,  greater  than  John, 
should  live  and  teach  in  protest  against  the  status 
quo,  he  too  would  be  a  marked  man.  But  Jesus 
let  his  name  be  associated  with  John's  and  so 
made  his  choice  between  a  life  of  security  and  a 
life  of  conflict. 

Almost  immediately  the  new  teacher  encoun- 
tered the  prejudices  of  those  who  had  known  Him 
in  his  youth.  He  went  back  to  the  place  where 
He  had  been  brought  up,  and  preached  against  the 
exclusiveness  of  racial  superiority.  Prominent 
men  of  Nazareth,  in  the  front  seats  of  the  syna- 


B4      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

gogue,  must  have  shaken  their  heads  at  the  ef- 
frontery of  the  young  upstart.  He  was  daring 
to  compare  them  to  Jews  in  history  who  had  been 
judged  less  worthy  than  heathen  to  receive  bene- 
fits from  God.1  Such  a  sermon  from  a  stranger 
would  have  been  offensive  enough,  but  from  a 
carpenter  whom  they  knew  it  was  intolerable. 
They  sprang  up,  hurried  Him  out  of  the  building, 
and  would  have  subjected  Him  to  what  was  known 
as  the  "rebel's  beating,"2  but  He  made  his  way 
through  them  and  was  gone. 

Whenever  Jesus  spoke  or  acted  in  protest 
against  pride  of  race,  prominent  Jews  resented 
what  He  said  and  did.  That  He  should  dine  with 
tax-gatherers  and  social  outcasts  ought  to  prove, 
they  thought,  what  kind  of  man  He  was.  There 
was  soon  much  talk  about  him  at  the  capital ;  the 
people  were  misled  by  a  demogogue  who  associ- 
ated with  foreigners  and  with  men  who  were  os- 
tracized from  good  society.  It  was  when  he  dared 
to  predict  that  other  nations  might  be  more  ready 
for  the  Kingdom  than  the  Chosen  People  that 
he  was  warned  of  the  hostility  against  him.3  The 
governor  of  Galilee  wanted  to  preserve  law  and 
order  in  his  state,  and  it  was  his  policy  to  sup- 
press the  leader  of  a  movement  that  threatened  to 
cause  trouble.  The  answer  of  the  young  leader 
to  those  who  warned  Him  of  his  danger  showed 

iLuke  4:25-30. 

2  The  rebel's  beating  was  similar  to  lynch  law.  It  was  a  form 
of  punishment  administered  by  the  people  without  trial  and  on 
the  spot,  when  any  one  was  caught  in  what  seemed  to  be  a 
flagrant  violation  of  some  law  or  tradition. 

3  Luke  13:  28-31. 


THE  CONFLICT  85 

that  He  understood  the  character  of  the  governor 
hut  that  He  intended  to  go  on  with  his  work.  His 
friends  said  He  was  mad,1  a  fanatic  who  was  out 
of  his  mind.  Lawyers  from  the  capital  said  his 
power  was  diabolical.  But  He  went  on  talking 
about  the  men  and  women  who  would  be  his 
brothers  and  his  sisters  2  because  they  were  doing 
what  his  Father  wanted  done.  He  knew  how  the 
Jews  felt  about  Samaritans,  and  yet  He  made  one 
of  the  despised  race  the  hero  of  a  story.  His 
followers  would  have  sent  away  an  alien  woman,3 
but  He  made  her  teach  them  a  lesson  in  faith  and 
then  healed  her  daughter.  When  He  defied  Jewish 
prejudice  with  the  statement  that  all  nations 
would  come  into  the  presence  of  the  Judge,4  did 
He  mean  that  his  Father  would  not  care  whether 
people  were  black  or  white,  red  or  yellow,  Jew 
or  Gentile,  English,  Irish,  German,  or  Japanese? 
It  was  not  the  multitude  whom  He  offended  by  his 
inclusion  of  Gentiles.  It  was  the  chief  priests  and 
the  elders  and  the  lawyers  who  sought  how  they 
might  take  Him  and  kill  Him. 

It  was  not  only  race  prejudice  that  He  met  and 
tried  to  overcome.  He  had  said  again  and  again 
with  unmistakable  emphasis  that  the  delight  of 
being  rich  choked  the  word,  that  a  man's  life  did 
not  consist  of  his  possessions,  and  that  unless  a 
person  parted  with  all  his  goods  he  could  not 
be  a  disciple.5  Simple  people  "  rejoiced  over  all 
his  splendid  doings."6  He  was  the  hero  of  the 
proletariat.    But  those  who  "  thought  themselves 

iMark  3:  21.  2  Mark  3:  22-35.  3  Mark  7:  24-30. 

4  Matt.  25:  32.  5  Luke  14:  33.  e  Luke  13:  17. 


86      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

to  be  somewhat' '  saw  that  He  was  undermining 
what  brought  them  their  special  privileges. 
Lovers  of  money  sneered  at  Him,1  but  He  went 
on  to  tell  them  a  story  about  the  condemnation 
of  a  rich  man.  He  had  directed  one  of  the  few 
wealthy  men  who  came  to  Him  to  sell  all  his  pos- 
sessions,2 and  had  used  an  illustration  of  some- 
thing that  was  impossible  in  stating  that  those 
who  had  money  could  not  enter  the  Kingdom. 
He  did  not  appreciate  as  generosity  the  gifts  of 
those  who  gave  out  of  their  superfluity,  but  He 
praised  a  poor  widow  who  gave  all  that  she  had. 
He  had  denounced  the  ostentation  of  those  who 
dressed  conspicuously  and  expected  deference 
from  others.  It  was  no  wonder  that  important 
men  came  to  regard  Him  as  an  enemy.  They  knew 
He  meant  what  He  said  because  He  Himself  was 
living  in  the  simple  way  He  told  them  to  live. 
But  they  did  not  want  to  live  that  way.  They 
could  not  say  that  his  words  about  riches  were 
figurative  and  not  to  be  taken  seriously,  because 
a  group  of  people  did  follow  Him  and  accept  his 
standards.  So  they  must  protect  their  interests 
against  Him  in  some  other  way.  They  said  He 
was  breaking  the  Law ;  He  was  breaking  the  Law 
as  they  interpreted  that  Law.  His  young  free 
spirit  could  not  be  held  within  the  bounds  of 
meticulous  observance.  He  loved  men  too  much 
to  bind  burdens  upon  them.  But  those  who  were 
laying  on  other  people's  shoulders  heavy  burdens, 
which  they  themselves  would  not  touch  with  a 

iLuke  16:  14-31. 
2  Luke  18:  24,  25. 


THE  CONFLICT  87 

finger,  looked  at  this  dangerous  idealist  with  open 
hostility  and  sent  secret  service  men  to  spy  upon 
Him  and  catch  Him  in  his  talk. 

He  had  denounced  their  wealth.  He  accused 
them  also  of  exercising  arbitrary  authority  over 
the  people,  and  He  acted  in  defiance  of  that  author- 
ity. He  questioned  their  right  to  dictate  about 
the  Sabbath.  Because  they  had  enjoyed  privi- 
leges which  gave  them  important  positions  in  the 
community  they  claimed  the  power  to  interpret 
the  Law.  Nothing  that  was  contrary  to  custom 
and  precedent  could  be  done,  especially  nothing 
that  was  subversive  of  their  authority.  But  the 
vigorous  new  prophet,  full  of  fire  and  enthusiasm, 
let  his  comrades  eat  grain  when  they  were  walk- 
ing through  a  field  on  the  Sabbath.  He  paid  no 
attention  to  the  fasts  which  were  kept  on  Mon- 
days and  Thursdays.  He  did  not  recognize  the 
barriers  they  had  set  up  between  outcasts  and 
respectable  members  of  the  community.  He  was 
not  careful  enough  in  choosing  his  friends.  When 
He  deliberately  healed  sick  people  on  the  Sabbath, 
He  aroused  the  wrath  of  those  whose  rule  He  was 
undermining.  The  Pharisees  and  the  Herodians, 
two  parties  which  had  never  agreed  before,  came 
together  in  their  hatred  of  Jesus  as  a  common 
enemy,  and  formed  a  joint  committee  to  bring 
about  his  arrest.  If  they  could  convict  Him  on 
charges  that  would  seem  plausible,  they  could  get 
Him  out  of  the  way.  Later  even  the  Sadducees 
joined  in  the  effort  to  trap  Him;1  they  did  not 
usually  trouble  themselves  about  questions  of  re- 

iMark  12:  18-27. 


88      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ligion,  but  when  a  man  talked  against  their  pre- 
rogatives he  became  a  menace  to  the  established 
order  which  gave  them  their  exclusive  privileges. 
Conscious  of  this  deepening  hostility,  sensitive  to 
the  bitterness  of  his  enemies,  Jesus  still  kept  on 
his  way  and  continued  to  oppose  their  standard 
of  external  appearances.  He  let  his  comrades 
eat  their  meals  without  the  ceremonial  washing 
of  hands.  He  dared  to  denounce  openly  the  hypoc- 
risy of  men  in  high  positions.1  As  a  guest  in  the 
house  of  a  ruler  He  did  not  speak  smooth  things 
but  taught  his  host  a  lesson  in  humility  and  sim- 
plicity.2 In  the  very  center  of  the  national  life 
He  condemned  a  great  social  evil 3  by  an  act  that 
meant  a  claim  to  authority  equal  to  that  of  the 
rulers  themselves.  Profiteers  saw  with  dismay 
that  if  He  interfered  with  the  traffic  in  the  Temple 
He  might  try  to  overthrow  other  established  prac- 
tices. If  He  had  been  alone  it  would  not  have  mat- 
tered so  much  what  He  said  and  did,  but  his  fol- 
lowing among  the  people  was  strong.  A  leader 
who  could  rise  with  a  great  company  of  other 
workingmen  behind  Him  was  more  than  a  vision- 
ary and  a  dreamer;  He  was  a  rebel,  a  revolutionary 
agitator  against  whom  the  rights  of  property  must 
be  protected.  They  dared  not  arrest  Him  openly,4 
because  the  people  all  hung  upon  Him,  listening; 
but  they  learned  how  they  could  take  Him  at  night, 
in  a  quiet  place,  when  his  few  companions  could 
be  easily  overwhelmed  if  they  resisted.  And  the 
conflict  ended  in  an  irregular  trial  when  witnesses 

iLuke  12:  1.  2  Luke  14:  7-14.  3  Mark  11:  15-19. 

4  Luke  19 :  47,  48. 


THE  CONFLICT  89 

perjured  themselves  and  the  court  knew  before- 
hand what  should  be  their  verdict. 

The  bitterness  of  misunderstanding,  of  contro- 
versy, treachery,  and  seeming  failure  must  have 
cut  deep  into  the  life  of  one  who  had  such  imagi- 
native sympathy  with  the  needs  of  men  and 
women.  Opposition  to  accepted  standards  meant 
a  conflict  in  his  own  group  loyalties.  If  He  was 
to  lead  a  movement  of  simple  people  for  the  trans- 
formation of  all  society,  He  could  not  live  at  home 
with  his  mother,  his  brothers  and  sisters.  He 
must  trust  them  to  understand  while  He  carried 
out  a  purpose  that  meant  separation,  difficulties, 
danger  and  at  last  the  dishonor  of  death  as  a 
common  criminal.  His  family  came  to  find  Him 
as  if  to  claim  Him  for  a  narrower  circle,1  but  He 
rebuked  their  "private-mindedness"  in  words 
that  may  even  have  seemed,  at  the  time,  hard  and 
cold.  He  expected  that  family  loyalty  would  be 
subordinate  to  the  wider  loyalties.  A  life  lived 
for  the  world  might  mean  misunderstanding,  bit- 
terness, and  division,2  but  with  the  "long- 
minded"  point  of  view  he  saw  that  ease  and  pop- 
ularity in  this  life  were  nothing  in  comparison 
with  the  depth  of  love  that  knew  no  barriers  of 
exclusiveness.  He  understood  the  tragedy  of  the 
age-long  conflict  between  the  older  and  the 
younger  generation.  Yet  He  can  still  teach  both 
older  and  younger  what  should  be  their  spirit 
in  the  struggle.  He  is  free  from  all  personal 
hatreds.3  He  can  live  apart  from  his  mother  and 
yet  think  of  her  with  tenderness  and  provide  for 

i  Matt.  12 :  46-50.  2  Matt.  10 :  34-39.  3  John  19 :  25-27. 


90      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

her  future.  He  can  work  among  men  without 
the  seclusion  and  protection  of  a  home,  and  yet 
draw  little  children  to  Him  with  the  understanding 
of  a  father. 

And  He  can  denounce  evil  in  the  community 
without  ill-will  towards  those  who  profit  by  that 
evil.  He  is  class-conscious  among  the  simple  poor, 
and  yet  He  does  not  hate  those  whom  He  classifies 
as  rich.  But  his  good  will  cannot  save  Him  from 
those  who  fear  Him.  It  is  no  light  matter  when 
a  man  loses  the  respect  of  his  fellows.  Jesus 
went  back  among  his  own  towns-people,  and  de- 
clared the  truth  as  He  saw  it,  even  though  He 
knew  that  the  sermon  would  bring  Him  into  dis- 
repute and  even  danger.  He  might  have  been 
among  the  respected  citizens  of  Nazareth,  if  He 
had  not  chosen  to  give  Himself  for  the  world  out- 
side. Misunderstanding  in  his  own  family  was 
hard.  But  perhaps  harder  still  was  the  loss  of 
all  honor  in  his  own  town  so  that  for  the  rest 
of  his  life  He  was  cut  off  from  the  familiar  place 
in  which  He  had  grown  up.  And  it  was  not  that 
He  had  no  feeling  for  a  place  and  for  all  that  it 
represented.  He  saw  Capernaum  as  a  community 
that  might  have  accepted  his  principles.1  Above 
all,  He  saw  Jerusalem  as  the  center  of  national 
life,  a  city  that  might  have  cooperated  with  Him 
and  brought  in  a  new  age  on  earth. 

Men  question  whether  a  person  who  lives  for 
the  community  can  truly  love  his  own  family; 
whether  a  person  who  cares  deeply  for  the  nation 
can  at  the  same  time  be  loyal  to  his  community; 

iLuke  10:8-16. 


THE  CONFLICT  91 

whether  an  internationalist  can  be  a  patriot. 
Jesus  lived  for  the  world  and  yet  gave  Himself 
also  for  his  own  nation.  He  prayed  for  the  city 
that  represented  the  national  life  *  with  a  patriot- 
ism deeper  than  any  of  the  splendid  phrases  of 
generals  engaged  in  foreign  wars.  He  would  have 
led  the  Jews  to  form  a  commonwealth  that  would 
have  been  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth, 
but  they  would  not.  He  was  not  ashamed  to  weep 
over  the  capital  that  would  not  recognize  on  what 
its  peace  depended.  But  He  did  not  consider  it 
necessary  to  teach  his  followers  to  despise  or  to 
destroy  other  nations  in  order  to  prove  their  love 
for  their  own  country. 

His  way  does  not  seem  practical  now.  The 
conflict  is  the  same — between  conservatives  and 
radicals,  parents  and  children;  between  affection 
in  the  family  and  work  in  the  world  outside;  be- 
tween class-conscious  rich  and  class-conscious 
poor;  between  employers  and  employees;  between 
large  nations  and  small  ones ;  even  between  church 
and  church.  But  the  spirit  of  those  on  either 
side  is  seldom  that  of  Jesus.  The  forward-look- 
ing young  man  or  woman  is  rarely  free  from  an 
aggressiveness  that  increases  misunderstanding 
with  the  older  generation.  The  conservative  tries 
to  repress  those  with  whom  he  does  not  agree. 
Employers  have  a  well-developed  spy  system  in 
industry,  and  there  is  probably  no  industry  of  any 
considerable  size  in  the  United  States  which  has 
not  its  " spies"  on  the  lookout  for  the  activities 

iLuke  13:31-35. 


92      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  labor  unions.1  The  purpose  of  the  spy  system 
is  to  prevent  unions  from  getting  started  and  to 
oppose  them  when  they  are  started.  Well-known 
detective  agencies  have  found  it  profitable  to  ad- 
vertise their  efficiency  as  industrial  spies  and  have 
sometimes  employed  agents  provocateurs  to  bring 
about  the  labor  trouble  which  they  had  confidently 
predicted  to  the  employer.  The  so-called  "open 
shop"  campaign  of  the  winter  of  1920-21  was  a 
united  effort  of  employers  to  weaken  labor  unions. 
The  expression  "open  shop"  has  a  generous 
American  sound  as  if  it  meant  a  fair  and  equal 
opportunity  for  all.  In  reality,  the  usual  open 
shop  is  a  closed  non-union  shop  in  which  no  union 
man  can  get  a  job.  In  such  an  open  shop  the 
individual  employee  must  submit  to  the  conditions 
of  the  employer  who  probably  belongs  to  an  em- 
ployers' association  and  can  use  the  means  of 
the  corporation  to  give  publicity  to  his  side  of 
the  dispute.  In  one  great  strike  the  books  of 
the  company  revealed  an  expenditure  of  several 
million  dollars  for  publicity  in  all  the  leading 
newspapers  of  the  country.  People  living  in  the 
very  city  in  which  the  strike  took  place  could 
not  find  in  their  daily  papers  any  word  of  the 
strikers'  case;  every  article  was  written  from 
the  employers'  point  of  view.  When  meetings 
of  the  strikers  had  been  broken  up  by  armed 
militia,  the  public  was  still  wondering  how  there 
could  be  such  bitterness  against  employers  who 

i  Cf.  Howard,  Sidney,  The  Labor  Spy,  Republic  Publishing  Co., 
1921.  Brooks,  John  Graham,  Labor's  Challenge  to  the  Social 
Order,  Macmillan  Co.,  1921,  pp.  56-57. 


THE  CONFLICT  93 

were  known  as  respected  citizens  and  supporters 
of  the  churches. 

But  the  workers  who  organize  in  trade  unions 
are  not  necessarily  any  more  Christ-like  in  spirit 
than  the  employers  who  would  suppress  them, 
Just  as  there  are  enlightened  employers  who  are 
honestly  seeking  to  bring  Christianity  into  their 
business,  so  there  are  self-sacrificing  members  of 
unions  who  look  upon  their  work  as  a  public  serv- 
ice.    But  for  the  most  part  the  workers  reflect 
the    individualistic    philosophy    that    is    taught 
everywhere  in  our  country, — in  our  schools,  in 
our  books,  in  our  daily  newspapers,  in  the  whole 
fabric  of  our  national  life.    If  a  man  can  climb 
|  on  the  shoulders  of  some  one  else  he  can  get 
ahead.     "When  workers  with  this  philosophy  or- 
!  ganize  in  unions  they  may  still  be  seeking  indi- 
I  vidual  prosperity.     They  would  improve  condi- 
I  tions  and  "make  tomorrow  better  than  today," 
|  but  if  they  see  opportunity  for  advancement  they 
|  do  not  question  the  motives  of  those  above  them, 
A  man  has  his  wife  and  children  to  support,  and 
he  wants  satisfactions  for  himself  and  for  them. 
He  wants  a  home  that  is  more  than  a  shelter;, 
j  he  wants  good  food,  good  clothes,  theater  and 
j  recreations ;  he  wants  a  job  that  has  some  mean- 
jing;  he  wants  education — books,  papers,  and  op- 
j  portunity  for  culture ;  he  wants  education  for  his 
children.     These  desires  result  from  the  natural 
instincts  of  every  human  being.    Those  who  have 
satisfied  them  in  their  own  lives  are  not  the  ones 
to  question  the  right  of  any  other  man  to  seek 
these  satisfactions.    If  the  present  order  can  give 


94       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

a  man  these  things  he  assumes  its  continuance 
and  does  not  question  its  validity. 

Class-conscious  workers,  who  do  not  think  that 
reforms  and  improvements  go  deep  enough,  are 
fewer  in  number.  They  are,  for  the  most  part, 
younger  than  the  conservative  workingmen;  they 
are  idealists,  dreaming  of  a  new  day  when  workers 
all  over  the  world  shall  be  united  in  the  control 
of  that  which  they  produce.  Even  those  who  think 
them  mistaken  must  recognize  the  self-sacrifice  of 
men  who  will  go  to  prison  for  a  cause.  The  class- 
conscious  worker  has  little  hope  of  personal  ad- 
vantage for  himself  in  the  present  world.  He 
throws  himself  into  a  great  movement  with  a 
sense  of  the  solidarity  that  should  exist  among 
all  workers  everywhere.  He  identifies  himself 
with  men  of  different  nations  and  races,  in  a 
spirit  of  brotherhood  and  comradeship.  He  says 
unpopular  things  even  when  they  bring  him  to 
trial.  Probably  he  does  not  belong  to  any  branch 
of  the  Christian  Church,  because  the  church  of 
his  experience  has  been  identified  with  the  pos- 
sessing class.  He  may  even  say  that  he  is  with- 
out a  religion  because  the  religion  of  which  he 
has  known  has  been  identified  with  what  he  calls 
"churchianity.,,  Nevertheless  he  claims  Jesus 
as  a  comrade,  as  a  fellow-worker,  as  one  of  the 
proletariat.  He  compares  his  own  hope  of  a  new 
age  with  what  Jesus  taught  about  good  news  to 
the  poor,  release  for  captives,  recovery  of  sight 
for  the  blind,  freedom  for  the  oppressed,  and 
blessings  for  the  people. 

And  what  of  those  who  are  neither  working 


THE  CONFLICT  95 

for  wages  nor  employing  others?  What  should 
be  the  attitude  of  professional  men  and  women, 
and  of  people  who  have  small  business  interests? 
Should  the  "public"  take  sides  today  in  the  great 
conflict  between  capital  and  labor  or  should  it 
remain  neutral  1  But  can  any  one  remain  neutral ! 
Are  people  neutral  when  they  read  papers  and 
magazines  which  present  only  one  side  of  the 
problem,  when  they  talk  about  the  plumber  who 
will  not  work  on  Saturday  or  about  the  painter 
who  earns  more  than  the  teacher?  The  salaries 
of  professors  and  clergymen  are  usually  so  small 
as  to  mean  strictest  economy  and  limitation ;  who 
would  deny  it?  But  if  people  are  lamenting  that 
while  the  brain  worker  has  too  little,  the  manual 
worker  has  too  much,  then  they  are  taking  sides 
against  manual  workers.  If  people  keep  silent 
when  others  are  advocating  far-reaching  changes, 
they  are  not  maintaining  neutrality;  they  are 
quietly  supporting  things  as  they  are.  When  men 
and  women  accept  a  one-sided  report  of  the  strug- 
gle and  do  not  demand  the  whole  truth,  they  are 
secretly  afraid  of  the  truth.  Unless  the  public 
will  go  back  of  the  daily  newspapers,  seek  to  know 
the  fundamental  problem,  and  face  any  sacrifice 
that  the  solution  may  involve,  then  it  is  assumed 
by  both  sides,  and  rightly  assumed,  that  the  pub- 
lic is  on  the  side  of  those  who  are  comfortable 
and  who  think  that  all  is  right  with  the  world. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  neutrality.  The  align- 
ment in  our  country  means  that  every  man  or 
woman  is  on  one  side  or  on  the  other  in  the  con- 
flict. 


96      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

If  the  Christian  Church  is  arraigned  because 
she  is  identified  with  the  interests  of  the  workers 
and  if  the  church  immediately  denies  the  charge, 
then  she  is  putting  herself  on  the  side  that  is 
against  the  workers.  During  the  winter  of  1920- 
21,  groups  of  Christian  people  found  themselves 
accused  of  identification  with  the  movement  of 
the  working  class.  For  the  first  time  since  the 
alliance  of  the  church  with  the  Eoman  Empire 
church  members  were  grouped  with  the  men  un- 
derneath, and  it  came  about  because  certain  Chris- 
tians,— Soman  Catholics,  Anglicans,  Methodists, 
Presbyterians,  Friends,  and  others, — had  declared 
themselves  about  the  application  of  their  prin- 
ciples to  the  industrial  order.  They  represented 
probably  a  minority  of  each  communion.  The 
church  may  state  officially  that  she  will  "  meddle 
as  little  as  possible,  as  a  church,  with  definite 
political  or  economic  issues/ '  but  her  silence  is 
then  construed,  and  rightly  construed,  as  assum- 
ing the  continuance  and  the  validity  of  the  pres- 
ent social  order.  If  she  fears  to  take  the  side 
of  those  underneath  because  she  might  alienate 
those  who  can  give  largely  to  her  work,  then  the 
large  givers  are  justified  in  claiming  that  the 
Christian  Church  is,  for  the  most  part,  on  their 
side.  And  class-conscious  workers  are  justified 
in  assuming  that  the  Christian  Church,  as  a  whole, 
is  against  them.  Silence  does  not  mean  neutrality 
on  the  part  of  an  individual  or  of  a  group.  The 
"  public "  is  not  neutral. 

If  Jesus  were  here  now,  what  would  He  do? 
Where  would  He  be  in  the  conflict?     Would  He 


THE  CONFLICT  97, 

keep  silence  safely  or  would  He  speak  danger- 
ously?  Would  He  use  violence  to  overcome  vio- 
lence, or  would  He  try  again  the  way  He  tried 
before?  Would  He  lead  men  to  oppose  other  men 
in  bitterness  and  hatred,  with  lynchings,  reprisals, 
and  warfare,  or  would  He  show  us  that  in  the 
quest  for  justice  without  vengeance  we  have  "the 
moral  substitute  for  war"?  One  who  has  seemed 
to  try  the  way  of  Jesus  has  organized  working- 
men  for  many  years.  As  a  labor  leader  he  has 
taught  always  that  the  movement  of  the  workers 
must  be  without  violence.  He  has  shown  no  bit- 
terness of  spirit  in  any  controversy.  He  has  con- 
sistently maintained  that  the  use  of  force  was 
not  only  wrong  but  also  ineffective  and  that  the 
cause  of  the  workers  could  be  won  without  force. 
He  has  shown  how  violence  in  a  strike  defeats  the 
very  cause  it  would  uphold.  He  believes  that  no 
good  end  justifies  the  use  of  evil  means,  and  that 
men  should  never  kill  men,  even  to  save  others. 
To  kill  men  in  order  to  save  property  is,  to  him, 
abhorrent.  And  so  at  the  time  of  the  Great  War 
he  spoke  against  war  as  unchristian.  He  could 
not  believe  that  the  workers  of  any  country  ought 
to  kill  the  workers  of  any  other  country.  Let  the 
Christian  people  of  America  read  the  speeches 
of  Eugene  Debs,  for  which  he  was  arrested,  and 
the  speech  he  made  at  the  time  of  his  trial;  let 
them  compare  those  speeches  with  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament  and  judge  for  themselves 
which  is  nearer  the  spirit  of  Jesus — the  spirit 
of  Debs  or  the  spirit  of  those  who  rejoiced  in  his 
conviction.    Let  them  remember  that  it  was  for 


98      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

words  and  not  for  acts  that  he  was  condemned; 
those  who  tried  him  could  find  no  fault  in  him 
except  that  he  was  talking  against  war.  They 
knew  he  had  consistently  maintained  that  violence 
was  wrong,  not  only  between  nations  but  between 
classes.  Yet  the  American  people  kept  Eugene 
Debs  in  prison  for  nearly  three  years.  Even  now 
he  has  been  released  only  by  commutation  of  sen- 
tence without  restoration  of  citizenship. 

What  if  a  hundred  thousand  men,  in  the  spirit 
of  goodwill,  should  take  over  the  control  of  some 
one  great  industry?  "With  a  declaration  that  they 
would  produce  goods  not  for  private  profit,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  the  community,  they  could  as- 
sume the  responsibility  for  that  industry.  With- 
out personal  antipathy  towards  former  employers 
they  could  quietly  manage  a  great  cooperative  en- 
terprise. If  any  one  of  their  number  were  shot 
down  by  those  who  would  oppose  them,  they  could 
yet  forgive  and  maintain  their  principle  of  re- 
sistance without  violence.  If  they  were  overcome 
in  one  place,  they  could  move  to  another  and  keep 
on  trying  the  new  way.  The  leaders  might  be 
called  "mad";  they  might  be  suppressed,  per- 
secuted, imprisoned,  and  even  put  to  death;  but 
the  movement  would  grow.  The  power  of  such 
group  action  carried  out  with  constructive  good- 
will would  be  irresistible.  It  would  do  what  no 
coercion  could  ever  do.  By  its  example  it  would 
stir  in  those  who  now  have  more  of  life  than 
others  a  new  self-forgetfulness.  It  would  show 
those  who  seek  more  life  the  true  way  to  find  life. 

Is  it  an  unpractical  dream  of  idealists  who  have 


THE  CONFLICT  99 

no  "business  sense"?  So  was  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  the  first  centuries.  The 
early  Christians  were  simple  men  and  women ; * 
"not  many  wise  men,  not  many  leading  men,  not 
many  of  good  birth,  but  God  chose  what  was  weak 
in  the  world  to  shame  the  strong ;  what  was  mean 
and  despised  in  the  world, — things  which  are  not 
to  put  down  things  that  are."  Yet  the  church 
grew,  as  Jesus  said  it  would.  The  death  of  lead- 
ers only  brought  new  life  into  the  movement.  It 
was  the  power  of  those  underneath  gathered  to- 
gether to  take  the  world  by  storm,  not  with  swords 
and  spears,  but  in  the  unconquerable  strength  of 
love.  Is  the  power  of  those  early  days  departed 
from  the  church,  or  will  she  bring  into  the  conflict 
a  spiritual  force  that  will  bear  unmistakable  wit- 
ness to  the  presence  of  Christ? 

Questions  for  Discussion 

1.    If  you  were  a  weaver,  with  a  wife  and  children, 
and  could  choose  one  of  the  following  courses  of 
action,  which  would  you  choose?     Why? 
a.    Take  a  job  in  an  "open  shop"  plant  in  which 
the  employer  had  established  reasonably  good 
conditions,  but  kept  control  of  all  the  condi- 
tions of  work. 
Z>.    Join  the  United  Textile  "Workers,  a  craft  union 
affiliated    with    the    American    Federation    of 
Labor,  which  might  promise  increase  of  wages 
and  opportunity  to  regulate  working  conditions 
in  the  near  future,  but  which  assumes  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  present  economic  system. 
c.    Join    the    Amalgamated    Textile    Workers,    a 
struggling  industrial  union  which  is  trying  to 

1 1  Cor.  1 :  26-28. 


100      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

educate  textile  workers  for  the  control  of  the 
textile  industry. 

2.  If  Jesus  were  living  on  earth  now,  at  what  points 
would  He  be  in  conflict  with  accepted  standards? 

3.  Under  what  circumstances  should  conflict  with 
present  standards  include  the  breaking  of  laws  that 
are  contrary  to  what  we  believe  to  be  right? 


Chapter  Sex 
INTERCESSION 

Throughout  the  conflict  Jesus  prayed.  No  man 
has  approached  Him  in  realization  of  nearness  to 
God  and  dependence  upon  Him,  or  in  the  complete- 
ness with  which  daily  living  has  meant  the  service 
of  one's  fellow  men.  But  this  continuing  con- 
sciousness and  this  devoted  activity  did  not  make 
unnecessary  the  setting  apart  of  hours  for  fellow- 
ship with  the  Father.  The  prayers  of  Jesus  of 
which  the  gospels  tell  us  in  detail  express  qualities 
revealed  in  his  life  and  analyzed  in  his  teaching. 
May  we  not  assume  that  the  same  concern  for 
individuals,  the  same  longing  for  a  righteous  so- 
ciety, the  same  profound  understanding  of  the 
nature  of  God  were  present  in  the  hours  of  prayer 
<about  the  details  of  which  the  gospels  are  silent! 
Moreover,  we  know  that  the  type  of  personality 
He  sets  forth  verbally  reflects  his  own  character, 
and  the  temptations  of  which  He  warns  other  men 
He  Himself  faced  and  conquered;  are  not  his  pre- 
cepts about  prayer  also  the  fruit  of  his  own  ex- 
perience? 

Prayer  is,  then,  inseparable  from  living.  Jesus 
lived  without  self-will,  and  his  keen  perception 
of  other  men's  sins  was  part  of  a  great  desire 
to  help  them  to  live  up  to  the  best  that  was  in 
them.    Only  as  singleness  of  purpose,  understand- 

101 


102      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ing  of  others'  needs,  and  constructive  love  domi- 
nate our  thoughts  and  activities  throughout  the 
hours  of  the  day,  will  our  moments  of  prayer  bring 
clear  guidance  and  power.  It  is  the  pure  in  heart 
who  shall  see  God.  It  is  the  man  who  has  done 
his  best  to  repair  the  wrongs  he  has  committed 
against  other  men  and  who  forgives  "  until  seventy 
times  seven"  the  wrongs  others  have  done  to  him 
who  may  seek  God 's  forgiveness.  And  these  quali- 
ties which  must  precede  prayer  are  no  senti- 
mental unrealities.  In  the  midst  of  a  world  based 
on  selfishness,  we  must  I02  pure  from  selfishness 
and  effective  in  serving.  In  so  far  as  we  have 
shared  in  unjust  relationships,  we  must  be  striv- 
ing to  the  utmost  of  our  ability  for  justice.  Not 
only  must  we  be  clear  of  personal  resentment  but 
we  must  try  to  understand  the  motives  and  ideals 
and  temptations  of  alien  groups  that  seem  hos- 
tile or  dangerous  or  uncongenial. 

But  also  it  is  plain  that  we  need  God's  help 
to  achieve  these  qualities.  As  the  ideal  grows  and 
the  conflict  between  the  way  of  Jesus  and  the  way 
of  the  world  becomes  clearer,  we  become  increas- 
ingly conscious  of  failure.  Our  spirit  demands 
confession  of  sin  and  greater  dependence  upon 
God  from  day  to  day.  Would  Jesus  have  us  turn 
away  from  prayer  until  we  have  learned  to  out- 
grow sin  and  to  do  his  word?  But  He  prayed  in 
the  midst  of  temptation,  and  if  our  effort  is  honest 
and  our  desire  for  goodness  untarnished  we  follow 
the  way  of  Jesus  in  turning  to  prayer  for  guid- 
ance. 

For  example,  when  Jesus  became  publicly  iden- 


INTERCESSION  103 

titled  with  the  movement  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
faced  the  necessity  of  deciding  just  what  He  ought 
to  do  He  withdrew  to  solitude.  The  gospels  do 
not  say  in  so  many  words  that  Jesus  prayed  in 
the  wilderness,  but  they  show  us  Jesus  consider- 
ing possible  methods  of  work  and  from  meditation 
on  God's  way  of  dealing  with  his  people  arriving 
at  a  guiding  principle  for  his  own  career.  Later, 
as  the  conflict  sharpened  and  the  temptation  to 
waver  was  renewed  and  made  more  difficult  by 
the  misunderstanding  of  his  most  intimate  friends, 
He  prayed  again  and  again,  now  alone  and  now 
with  the  men  who  were  closest  to  Him.  One 
glimpse  of  these  prayers  that  we  have  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration  suggests  a  fellowship 
with  the  Father  that  included  a  thought  of  the 
needs  of  his  friends,  recollection  of  the  great 
teachers  of  righteousness  who  had  helped  Him  to 
understand  God,  and  a  bringing  to  the  Father  of 
the  elements  of  the  conflict  in  which  He  was  in- 
volved. 

Prayer  for  personal  guidance  is  an  ethical  ad- 
venture, an  effort  to  open  the  mind  to  the  mind 
of  God,  to  bring  to  bear  on  the  problems  of  our 
relation  to  God  and  our  relation  to  each  other  all 
that  we  have  learned  from  the  teachers  of  the 
race,  from  the  character  of  Jesus,  and  from  our 
own  experiences  together.  Jesus  teaches  us  a 
principle  that  a  child  can  understand :  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  .  .  .  and  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  In  prayer  we  seek  the  concrete  ap- 
plication of  that  principle.  And  prayer  is  a  part 
of  life  to  which  our  Lord's  saying,  "To  whom 


104      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 


much  is  given  of  him  shall  much  be  required 
is  especially  pertinent.  The  man  who  has  grown 
up  in  the  world  of  the  poor,  where  such  experi- 
ences as  birth  and  death,  moral  failure,  illness, 
accidents,  and  lack  of  work  teach  a  fellowship 
of  suffering  and  a  depth  of  sympathy  and  mutual 
helpfulness  that  those  living  in  security  or  en- 
trenched behind  the  barriers  of  social  position 
seldom  try  to  comprehend,  brings  to  the  ethical 
adventure  of  prayer  a  spiritual  understanding 
which  should  inform  his  desire  for  guidance. 
Again,  the  man  with  a  mind  trained  to  abstract 
thinking,  or  able  in  the  management  of  business 
affairs,  will  bring  to  his  prayer  for  personal  guid- 
ance his  best  thinking  on  such  problems  as  the 
relation  of  classes,  the  relation  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  State  to  the  supremacy  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples, the  material  needs  of  the  world  in  terms 
of  human  welfare,  and  the  steps  by  which  the  eco- 
nomic order  can  be  brought  under  the  rule  of 
Christ.  "Whether  learned  or  powerful  or  simple 
and  obscure,  we  are  each  summoned  to  seek,  in 
prayer,  the  way  by  which  in  the  conflicting  group 
loyalties  of  today  we  can  best  serve  one  another. 
We  must  use  in  our  prayers  the  clearest  think- 
ing and  the  greatest  love  of  which  we  are  capable. 
To  those  who  pray  with  a  love  unsullied  by  self- 
will,  or  favoritism,  or  exclusiveness  of  church  or 
class  or  race  or  nation,  and  reflecting  God's  de- 
sire for  human  unity  and  his  cherishing  of  the 
least  of  his  children, — to  them  is  fulfilled  the  prom- 
ise of  God's  spirit  possessing  us,  which  is  the  an- 
swer to  prayer. 


INTERCESSION  105 

In  fact,  our  prayers  for  our  own  needs  are 
scarcely  distinct  from  our  prayers  for  the  needs 
of  others.  Jesus  loved  each  one  individually  and 
shows  us  that  each  of  us  is  personally  precious 
to  the  Father.  But  we  grow  in  likeness  to  the 
Father,  we  become  friends  of  God,  through  our 
love  for  one  another,  and  we  cannot  come  to  the 
Father  in  quest  of  spiritual  blessings  for  our- 
selves if  we  forget  the  human  family  of  which 
we  are  members.  In  the  very  act  of  conceiving 
of  ourselves  as  distinct  and  separate  from  others 
we  strengthen  the  consciousness  of  self  which  it 
is  the  purpose  of  prayer  to  replace  by  a  conscious- 
ness of  God.  Intercession  is,  mainly,  an  effort 
to  see  others  as  God  sees  them,  and  in  prayer 
that  dwells  on  others  with  no  thought  of  ourselves 
except  in  definite  relation  to  them  we  can  learn 
an  affection  that  gives  without  stint  to  those  about 
us,  a  tenderness  for  all  who  suffer,  and  an  imagi- 
native sympathy  and  constructive  love  for  those 
whom  we  do  not  naturally  like,  which  will  cleanse 
our  own  souls  of  selfish  desire. 

And  in  a  world  so  bound  together  by  the  inter- 
dependence of  large  scale  industry  and  the  ex- 
change of  products  among  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  that  every  man  is  served  by  thousands  whom 
|  he  never  sees,  our  intercessions  must  reach  be- 
<  yond  the  number  of  our  friends  and  our  friends ' 
friends;  beyond  our  parish  and  our  church  and 
its  missions;  beyond  the  needs  of  schools  and 
homes  of  which  we  know;  beyond  the  problems 
of  our  own  country  to  include  the  needs  of  indi- 
viduals   and    classes    and    nations    everywhere. 


106      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Through  intercession  we  must  learn  the  unity  of 
the  race. 

The  question  is  often  raised  as  to  whether  in- 
tercession really  serves  the  persons  and  the  causes 
for  which  we  pray.  Does  it  help  them  or  is  it 
merely  the  reasonable  way  to  develop  in  ourselves 
a  greater  desire  to  serve?  Does  God  need  our 
intercessions  for  others  in  order  to  awaken  the 
best  that  is  in  them  and  to  "  hasten  the  King- 
dom"? But  do  we  need  proof  beyond  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  about  the  value  of  intercessory 
prayer?  Jesus  Himself  prayed  for  others.  It  is 
true  that  his  intercessions  for  Simon  Peter  did 
not  prevent  Simon's  yielding  to  the  fear  of  what 
other  people  thought  and  disclaiming  his  friend- 
ship with  Jesus  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  group; 
but  did  they  not  perhaps  help  to  deepen  his  sense 
of  shame  for  this  cowardice  and  strengthen  his 
readiness  to  suffer  loyally  afterwards?  Again, 
on  the  cross,  Jesus  prayed  that  his  enemies  might 
be  forgiven.  We  cannot  believe  that  this  was 
merely  a  phrase,  witnessing  to  his  indomitable 
love  but  uttered  without  the  purpose  of  serving 
others.  The  absolute  integrity  of  Jesus'  nature 
would  never  degrade  the  act  of  prayer  to  a  vehicle 
for  conveying  to  the  bystanders  the  fact  that  He 
bore  no  ill-will  but  understood  the  blindness  of 
his  enemies.  He  prayed  for  others  as  a  genuine 
and  important  part  of  the  service  to  humanity 
for  which  He  lived  and  died. 

And  Jesus  told  his  disciples  to  pray  for  others. 
Specifically  He  told  us  to  pray  for  those  who 
persecute  us  as  a  part  of  the  love  we  must  have 


INTERCESSION  107 

for  enemies.     St.  Luke  gives  this  instruction  to 
pray  for  others  as  the  climax  in  a  sequence  of 
four  commands : 1  Love  your  enemies,  do  good  to 
them  that  hate  you,  bless  them  that  curse  you, 
pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  you.     The 
disciples  who  failed  in  the  healing  of  a  sick  boy 2 
were  told  that  they  had  failed  to  pray  for  him. 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  did  not  observe  the  strict 
schedule  of  supplications  which  the  Pharisees  and 
the  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  considered  im- 
portant,3 but  Jesus  took  it  for  granted  that  the 
habit  of  prayer  would  develop  as  a  part  of  the 
expression  of  the  new  life  He  was  revealing.    And 
He  told  them  to  pray  constantly  in  preparation 
for  the  world  crises  that  would  come.4    One  bit 
of  instruction  about  prayer  is  especially  pregnant 
for  us.    At  one  time  when  Jesus  was  stirred  by 
the  needs  of  the  multitudes,  who  seemed  "  dis- 
tressed and  scattered,"  He  was  preparing  to  send 
out  his  friends  to  cover  the  countryside  with  his 
teaching.    He  tells  them  to  pray,5  and  according 
to  the  part  of  his  instruction  that  has  come  down 
to  us  He  asked  them  to  pray,  not  that  the  Father 
would  prosper  the  mission  on  which  they  were 
themselves  embarking  but  that  He  would  send 
other  workers  to  extend  it  still  further. 

Is  intercession,  then,  the  whole  of  prayer? 
Should  we  not  confess  to  God,  each  of  us  indi- 
vidually, our  own  sins?  Should  we  not  review 
in  his  presence  the  qualities  that  we  know  we 
most  urgently  need?    There  is  clearly  a  danger 

i  Luke  6 :  27-28.  2  Mark  9 :  29.  3  Luke  5 :  33-38. 

*  Luke  21:36.  5  Luke  10:2. 


108      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  drifting  into  an  assumption  that  others  need 
God's  help  more  than  we  do  ourselves.  We  may 
be  so  concerned  over  the  evils  in  the  world  that 
we  confess  other  people's  sins  and  overlook  our 
own.  But  to  see  the  danger  is  one  long  step 
toward  avoiding  it.  And  experience  teaches  us 
that  the  more  we  try  to  practice  intercession — 
that  is,  the  seeing  of  others  as  God  sees  them — 
the  more  do  we  learn  to  discern  that  which  is 
good  in  other  people  and  the  more  clearly  do 
we  see  the  kinship  between  their  sins  and  our 
own.  The  better  we  understand  other  lives  the 
more  keenly  do  we  realize  our  failure  in  relation 
to  them.  The  evils  about  which  we  pray  cease 
to  be  external  matters  but  a  spiritual  concern 
of  the  group  in  which  we  are  living  members; 
their  sin  is  upon  us,  the  beam  is  in  our  own  eyes ; 
our  penitence  includes  inextricably  our  own  sins 
and  the  sins  of  the  human  family.  We  desire 
cleansing  that  the  group  may  be  cleansed  and 
that  we  may  contribute  our  share  to* the  goodness 
that  will  overcome  the  evil.  In  the  same  way, 
the  qualities  we  desire  are  meaningless  in  isola- 
tion. They  are  important  for  the  life  of  the 
group  and  we  pray  for  them  effectively  only  by 
praying  about  the  relationships  in  which  they  will 
be  expressed. 

Even  in  thanksgiving  we  may  not  think  about 
ourselves  apart  from  others.  In  the  one  prayer 
of  thanksgiving  recorded  in  the  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels 1  as  uttered  by  Jesus,  He  rejoiced  in  the  un- 
derstanding of  the  Kingdom  that  was  growing 

iLuke  10:  17-24. 


INTERCESSION  109 

among  simple  people  and  in  the  revelation  of 
God  to  others  through  Himself.  And  to  his  friends 
who  had  come  back  joyfully  from  their  campaign, 
He  gave  the  warning  that  they  should  not  re- 
joice in  their  spiritual  power  but  in  the  fact  that 
they  had  a  share  in  the  new  life. 

The  words  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  are  almost 
fatally  familiar.  Even  new  translations  fail  to 
give  them  freshness  to  our  minds.  But  study  and 
meditation  upon  the  several  clauses  can  inform 
them  with  life  and  reveal  how  far  they  transcend 
our  daily  habits  of  prayer.  For  example:  Our 
Father.  Whom  are  we  including  in  our  thoughts 
as  children  with  us  of  the  heavenly  Father  %  Can 
we  suppose  that  Jesus  would  have  us  stop  short 
of  the  whole  human  race?  There  is  a  subtle  dan- 
ger for  us  who  treasure  our  inheritance  in  the 
Christian  Church  to  emphasize  our  sonship  to 
God  and  fancy  that  we  are  dearer  to  Him  than 
other  men.  A  group  quite  as  easily  as  an  indi- 
vidual can  fall  into  the  way  of  dwelling  on  its 
achievements  and  losing  the  perspective  of  its 
relation  to  other  groups  and  of  their  relation  to 
God.1  But  when  we  say,  Our  Father  who  art 
in  heaven,  we  are  praying  not  only  for  ourselves 
and  our  church  but  for  prostitutes  and  criminals 
and  rich  men  and  poor  men,  white  and  black, 
native  and  foreign,  radicals  and  conservatives, 
Americans,  Germans,  Eussians,  Indians,  and  Jap- 
anese. We  assent  to  the  unity  of  the  race  and 
set  ourselves  a  standard  by  which  we  should  be 

iLuke  18:9-14. 


110      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

testing  our  words  and  actions  in  relation  to  those 
groups  from  which  we  are  divided. 

Hallowed  be  Thy  Name,  The  Name  means  the 
revelation  of  God,  the  understanding  of  his  char- 
acter and  his  purposes.  As  Christians  we  find 
this  supremely  in  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Can  we  pray,  therefore,  for  the  hallowing  of  God's 
Name  except  as  we  reverence  not  only  his  love 
but  his  hope  for  the  race!  Not  only  his  cross 
but  the  practicability  of  overcoming  evil  with 
good?  Not  only  the  beauty  of  the  Christian  ideal 
but  the  single-minded  purpose  of  life  for  which 
Jesus  died?  Can  our  prayer  be  sincere  if  we 
accept  as  inevitable  and  permanent  an  organiza- 
tion of  society  based  on  a  contradiction  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount?  Or  what  will  it  avail  if 
in  our  actions  we  place  our  own  comfort  above 
the  needs  of  others? 

Thy  Kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth, 
'As  it  is  in  heaven.  Do  we  really  desire  the  order- 
ing of  human  life  according  to  the  highest  good 
that  has  been  revealed  to  us  ?  What  are  we  per- 
sonally doing,  as  individuals  and  groups,  in  the 
present  conflict  between  good  and  evil  in  industrial 
life,  political  life,  international  life?  To  utter 
this  prayer  with  faith  we  must  be  seeking  to 
learn  God's  will  about  the  group  problems  in 
which  we  are  all  involved,  and  we  must  seek  until 
we  find  the  way  in  which  our  actions  may  best 
serve  the  cause  of  group  righteousness. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  Only  after 
meditation  on  the  revelation  of  God's  character 
and  the  purpose  and  possibilities  of  the  human 


INTERCESSION  111 

race  do  we  make  any  petition  concerning  physical 
needs.  The  Lord's  Prayer  reminds  ns  continu- 
ally that  we  are  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  his  righteousness.  The  form  of  this 
petition  for  bread  still  emphasizes  the  physical 
needs  of  the  race,  our  bread,  and  is  quite  incon- 
sistent with  the  satisfaction  of  the  needs  of  any 
person  or  any  group  at  the  expense  of  another. 
It  calls  us  to  such  an  organization  of  the  food 
supply  of  the  world  that  every  one  of  God's  chil- 
dren shall  have  enough.  Plenty  in  one  country 
and  starvation  in  another,  abundance  in  some 
homes  and  want  in  others,  are  hideous  contradic- 
tions of  this  Christian  prayer.    We  cannot  say 

i  it  honestly  until  we  personally  forego  luxury  and 
strive  with  mind  and  will  and  desire  for  the  or- 
dering of  production  and  distribution  of  food 

!  and  clothing  and  the  other  necessities  of  life  on 
the  basis  of  mutual  service. 

Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  As  we  forgive  those 
who  trespass  against  us.  Again  the  group  should 
be  in  our  thoughts.  Do  we  include  in  our  devo- 
tions an  examination  of  the  ways  in  which  our 
family  group,  our  parish  life,  our  class  in  indus- 
trial life,  our  church  as  a  whole  in  its  corporate 
existence,  our  political  party,  our  nation,  is  failing 
to  express  the  spirit  of  Christ?  Are  we  searching 
our  own  part  in  the  life  of  the  group?  Do  we 
understand  the  roots  of  the  group  sins  that  we 
find?  Are  we  prepared  to  admit  publicly  the 
failures  of  the  group  with  which  we  are  identified 
and  to  stress  the  good  instead  of  the  evil  in  alien 
groups?     Endless  applications  of  this  principle 


112      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

will  suggest  themselves  if  one  follows  this  thought 
to  a  conclusion.  But  one  or  two  illustrations  will 
indicate  the  contrast  between  this  principle  and 
our  usual  habit  of  mind.  Christian  employers, 
for  example,  might  honestly  seek  to  learn  and  then 
publicly  confess  the  ways  in  which  they  have  fallen 
short  of  the  standard  of  Christ  in  their  dealings 
with  employees  and  with  the  public.  They  might 
with  equal  sincerity  seek  to  understand  the  rea- 
sons for  the  restlessness  of  labor,  the  great  quali- 
ties of  the  working  class,  the  advantage  to  the 
race  of  the  growing  sense  of  solidarity  among  the 
workers.  And  the  organized  workers  might  ex- 
amine themselves  and  make  public  confession  of 
their  group  sins.  They  could  stress  the  risks 
carried  by  the  employer,  his  qualifications  for 
leadership,  and  the  reasons  why  he  has  come  to 
consider  his  control  of  industrial  power  essential 
to  society.  Again,  the  Christian  nation  will  be 
clean  of  pride,  admitting  its  acts  of  injustice  or 
greed  towards  other  nations,  emphasizing  that 
which  is  good  in  others  and  accepting  injuries 
without  resentment  but  returning  always  good 
for  evil.  Are  we,  as  individual  Christians,  help- 
ing to  develop  such  a  group  penitence  and  group 
forgiveness?  Are  we  remembering  that  Jesus 
tells  us  always  to  take  the  initiative  towards  for- 
giveness, whether  we  are  offenders  or  offended 
against,  and  that  He  makes  forgiveness  of  others 
an  absolute  prerequisite  of  our  own  forgiveness 
by  the  heavenly  Father? 

Lead  us  not  into  temptation;  But  deliver  us 
from  evil.     This  recognizes  sources  of  evil  out- 


INTERCESSION  113 

side  of  our  own  selfish  instincts.  Our  personal 
experience  reveals  the  way  in  which  our  rudi- 
mentary strivings  for  Christian  qualities  are  dis- 
couraged by  the  lower  standards  of  group  life. 
"We  would  be  kindly  and  forgiving,  but  national 
pride  steps  in  and  turns  the  kindliness  to  hatred 
when  a  German  is  in  question.  We  would  respect 
every  man's  personality  and  have  no  desire  to 
dominate  others,  but  by  the  public  opinion  of  our 
class  we  are  caught  acquiescing  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  ideals  contrary  to  our  own.  And  positively 
also  environment  can  stimulate  the  best  instead  of 
the  worst.  Mr.  Tawney  has  pointed  out  in  his 
book,  The  Acquisitive  Society,  that  the  idea  of 
service  expressed  in  the  standards  of  certain  pro- 
fessions finds  response  in  the  members  of  these 
professions  and  develops  a  different  viewpoint 
about  financial  profit  from  that  which  is  fostered 
in  the  business  world.  And  physical  surround- 
ings affect  character.  Crowded  dwellings,  without 
privacy,  offer  special  temptation  to  immorality. 
Boys  and  girls  in  dreary  barren  homes  with  no 
opportunity  for  wholesome,  inventive  play  natu- 
rally turn  to  mischief.  Can  we,  then,  pray  with 
sincerity  for  deliverance  from  evil  except  as  we 
are  alive  to  the  conditions  that  encourage  evil  and 
are  doing  what  we  can  towards  the  building  up  of 
group  standards  and  physical  surroundings  that 
call  forth  the  best  in  every  one? 

We  return,  then,  to  the  point  with  which  we 
began;  prayer  is  inseparable  from  living.  Asking 
and  seeking  must  supplement  each  other;  the 
promise  of  response  from  the  Father  is  given  to  a 


114      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

life  of  faith  in  which  prayer  is  a  part,  but  only  a 
part.  The  conquering  faith  embraces  both  the 
goal  and  the  method  set  before  us  by  Christ;  it 
seeks  the  way  of  Jesus  for  every  relationship  of 
individuals  and  of  groups ;  it  asks  that  the  will  of 
God  may  possess  us  completely.  If  it  keeps  an 
unwavering  loyalty,  not  to  a  form  of  words  or  an 
intellectual  concept  but  to  a  way  of  life  that  ex- 
presses the  way  of  Jesus,  it  will  receive  the  power 
that  is  promised  to  faith. 


Questions  for  Discussion 

1.  What  is  your  definition  of  Christian  prayer? 

2.  Make  out  an  intercession  leaflet  on  social  justice, 
with  a  confession,  intercessions,  and  at  least  one 
thanksgiving  for  each  day  of  the  week. 

3.  Can  a  follower  of  Jesus  pray  "Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread ' '  and  accept  the  present  economic  order  ? 

4.  Can  a  Christian  use  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  support 
any  war? 


Chapter  Seven 
THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS 

Executed  as  a  criminal,  dying  a  shameful  death 
on  a  gallows,  counted  as  one  who  had  violated  the 
law,  Jesus,  at  the  end  of  the  conflict,  was  still 
found  praying  for  his  enemies.  Throughout  his 
life  He  had  so  fully  identified  Himself  with  the 
needs  of  others  that  his  intercession  had  never 
been  separated  from  his  daily  experience.  It  was 
so  natural  to  Him  to  think  of  his  friends,  of  the 
nation,  of  the  world,  in  the  presence  of  his  Father, 
that  in  his  last  thoughts  He  was  concerned  for 
those  who  were  putting  Him  to  death,  for  a  thief, 
and  for  his  mother.  These  last  words  and  the 
whole  picture  of  the  crucifixion  are  so  familiar  to 
us  now  that  we  think  of  their  later  significance  to 
the  church  and  we  forget  what  such  a  death  meant 
at  the  time.  It  was  not  the  honorable  end  of  a 
soldier  on  the  field  of  battle,  recognized  and  ap- 
plauded by  countrymen  as  noble  and  glorious.  It 
was  the  execution  of  one  who  was  counted  as  a 
criminal,  despised  and  condemned  by  men.  Is  this 
the  picture  of  success  or  of  tragic  failure? 

Was  Jesus,  then,  successful1?  Was  the  method 
that  He  used  effective  in  accomplishing  the  end  He 
sought  1  His  way  brought  Him  into  conflict  with  all 
the  authorities  of  the  nation,  and  the  antagonism 
finally  overwhelmed  Him.     If  He  was  defeated, 

115 


116      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

then  perhaps  He  was  mistaken  in  the  means  He 
used?  We  may  reject  his  method  as  foolishness, 
even  while  we  accept  his  ideals.  Yet  the  fact  that 
his  ideals  are  accepted  now,  even  nominally,  by 
about  five  hundred  million  people  and  are  re- 
spected by  perhaps  as  many  more,  would  seem  to 
show  that  his  method,  after  all,  was  effective.  The 
rapid  growth  of  his  movement  during  the  first 
three  hundred  years  after  his  death,  the  willing- 
ness of  early  Christians  to  die  as  He  had  died,  the 
continuing  life  of  the  church  even  in  the  darkest 
ages,  the  modern  missionary  movement,  and  the 
new  awakening  to  the  meaning  of  his  social  teach- 
ings all  suggest  that  in  the  long  view  of  centuries 
his  life  was  a  success.  But  do  we,  even  now,  rec- 
ognize as  successful  a  life  like  that  of  Jesus?  Is 
it  our  idea  of  success  that  a  man  should  live  as  a 
worker  among  workingmen  and  die,  for  his  convic- 
tions, without  any  property  to  bequeath  in  a  will, 
without  honor  or  recognition?  What  is  success? 
Have  the  principles  of  Jesus,  the  standards  of 
simplicity  and  humility  and  service,  so  permeated 
society  that  no  one  now  need  suffer  for  those  prin- 
ciples as  He  suffered?  Have  we  such  respect  for 
a  man's  convictions  that  we  let  him  express  them 
freely  even  if  he  advocates  changes  that  disturb 
our  comfort?  Or  is  it  still  true  that  a  man  who 
would  live  as  Jesus  lived  and  speak  in  opposition 
to  power  and  pride,  as  He  spoke,  may  be  perse- 
cuted, silenced,  and  counted  a  failure  in  the  eyes 
of  Christians,  until,  after  years  have  passed,  he  is 
reverenced  by  the  conservatives  of  a  later  genera- 
tion? 


THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS  117 

Only  in  the  long  view  is  such  a  life  considered 
successful.  William  James  could  say  honestly 
that  he  was  "against  all  big  successes  and  big  re- 
sults ;  and  in  favor  of  the  eternal  forces  of  truth 
which  always  work  in  the  individual  and  immedi- 
ately unsuccessful  way — under-dogs  always,  till 
history  comes,  after  they  are  long  dead,  and  puts 
them  on  the  top."  To  most  of  us,  the  expression 
"a  successful  man"  connotes  the  idea  of  a  person 
prosperous  in  business  or  honored  in  his  profes- 
sion, recognized  and  admired  by  younger  men, 
eagerly  claimed  by  influential  people  in  his  own 
community.  The  successful  class  is  the  class  on 
top,  the  group  in  society  which  has  had  educa- 
tional advantages  and  is  in  control  of  others.  The 
successful  nation  is  the  one  that  can  boast  of  the 
most  imposing  economic  triumphs,  the  nation  that 
can  sit  among  the  few  great  powers  and  feel  se- 
cure in  the  protection  of  its  army,  its  navy,  its 
fleet  of  airplanes,  and  its  equipment  for  chemical 
warfare.  And  the  successful  church?  Is  it  the 
communion  that  builds  the  biggest  stone  churches 
on  the  most  important  streets  and  can  say  proudly 
that  she  has  within  her  membership  the  few  men 
who  can  give  the  largest  gifts  to  her  missionary 
work? 

We  have  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  not  our  usual 
idea  of  success  when  a  man  is  put  to  death  for  op- 
position to  accepted  standards,  or  when  a  group 
or  a  nation  or  a  church  lays  down  its  life.  Nor 
was  it  the  Jewish  idea  of  a  successful  Messiah. 
The  hope  of  a  righteous  age  and  the  expectation  of 
an  Anointed  One  who  should  usher  in  that  age  did 


118      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

not  include  the  thought  of  suffering.  The  Messiah 
would  be  immediately  triumphant;  his  victory 
would  be  miraculous  and  complete.  The  new  pe- 
riod would  mean  the  end  of  all  misery  and  sorrow; 
the  King  who  should  establish  justice  on  earth 
would  reign  supreme  over  all  his  enemies.  This 
was  the  expectation  in  all  the  apocalyptic  writings 
and  in  other  Jewish  books  that  dealt  with  the  hope 
of  a  new  order.  Only  in  one  book  is  suffering 
shown  as  related  to  the  age  of  righteousness,  when 
one  who  has  not  sinned  is  called  upon  to  die  as  a 
sinner.  In  the  teaching  of  the  " second  Isaiah" 
Jesus  saw  the  foreshadowing  of  what  He  was  Him- 
self called  upon  to  experience.  The  prophet  may 
have  been  writing  of  Israel  the  nation,  typified  as 
an  individual,  and  the  prophecy  "is  significant 
...  as  the  profoundest  solution  attempted  in 
the  Old  Testament  of  the  problem  of  unmerited 
suffering."  x  Jesus  quotes  it  in  speaking  of  Him- 
self; 2  He  was  to  suffer  on  behalf  of  others,  as  the 
Servant  of  the  Lord  in  the  prophecy.  He  was  to 
wait  on  others  as  the  Servant  and  to  give  his  life 
a  ransom  for  many.  He  could  use  this  prophecy 
to  oppose  the  popular  conception  of  Messiahship 
and  to  show  how  He  Himself  must  suffer  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  his  work.  Even  his  closest  friends 
could  not  understand  an  idea  so  foreign  to  their 
expectation.  Yet  from  the  moment  when  they  de- 
clared their  belief  in  his  Messiahship  He  told  them 
definitely  that  He  must  suffer  and  die.8    The  im- 

i  Scott,  Ernest  F.,  The  Kingdom  and  the  Messiah. 

2  Mark  14:  21. 

3  Mark  8:  31-38. 


THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS  119 

pression  of  what  He  said  was  so  strong  in  the 
minds  of  his  comrades  that  they  were  sure  He  had 
predicted  exactly  what  afterward  happened.  He 
must  have  realized  that  his  own  experience  would 
be  that  of  the  Servant  in  the  prophecy,  wounded, 
bruised,  chastised,  pouring  out  his  soul  unto  death. 
Jesus  did  not  think  of  the  suffering  as  failure. 
He  had  expected  it  even  from  the  beginning  of  his 
public  life,  and  had  spoken  of  a  time  when  they 
would  be  sad  because  He,  the  bridegroom,  was  no 
longer  with  them.  He  had  been  moved  by  the 
death  of  John  the  Baptist  who  had  spoken  no 
more  boldly  than  He  Himself  was  speaking.  If 
that  leader  was  put  to  death,  then  He  too  was  in 
danger.  But  it  would  not  mean  defeat.  His  con- 
ception of  true  greatness  was  that  of  a  servant 
who  would  give  himself  to  the  uttermost  for  the 
sake  of  others.  To  be  as  a  little  child  was  to  be 
exalted.  If  men  wanted  the  place  of  honor  beside 
Him1  they  must  wait  upon  others  and  lay  down 
their  lives  as  He  was  to  do.  They  could  not  expect 
the  applause  of  men  nor  deference  from  inferiors, 
for  they  themselves  were  to  be  in  the  position  of 
inferiors.  They  were  to  be  thankful  for  the  kind 
of  persecution  that  would  mean  true  success. 
Their  greatness  would  be  bound  up  with  the  ne- 
cessity of  suffering.  His  own  life  would  be  vic- 
torious, not  in  spite  of  his  death  but  because  of  his 
death.  "Unless  a  grain  of  wheat  falls  into  the 
earth  and  dies,  it  remains  a  single  grain ;  but  if  it 
dies  it  bears  rich  fruit."  2    "Whoever  tries  to  se- 

iMatt.  20:  20-28. 
2  John  12:  24. 


120       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

cure  his  life  will  lose  it,  and  whoever  loses  it  will 
preserve  it."1 

This  paradox  of  triumph  through  seeming  de- 
feat does  not  represent,  even  yet,  our  standard  of 
greatness.  The  type  of  hero  in  history  whom  we 
have  taught  our  children  to  admire  is  usually  the 
military  general  who  has  overcome  his  enemies  in 
battle.  Our  school  text-books  have  set  forth  the 
achievements  of  kings  and  commanders  and  ad- 
mirals in  wars  waged  for  the  supremacy  of  one 
country  over  another.  Only  lately  have  we  begun 
to  tell  children  the  stories  of  men  and  women 
unrecognized  in  their  own  time  yet  giving  their 
lives  in  constructive  work  for  the  world.  Did  not 
David  Livingstone,  John  Coleridge  Patteson,  Wil- 
liam Carey,  Karl  Marx,  Mary  Lyon,  Susan  B. 
Anthony,  and  others  who  were  pioneers  in  un- 
popular causes  contribute  more  towards  the  estab- 
lishment of  justice  on  earth  than  the  officers  who 
have  slain  their  enemies?  It  is  a  hopeful  sign 
when  we  recognize  the  patience  of  a  scientist.  In 
a  recent  discussion  in  France  as  to  who  was  the 
greatest  man  in  French  history,  the  question  was 
submitted  unofficially  to  the  people  of  the  country. 
Those  who  conducted  the  plebiscite  thought  the 
vote  would  result  in  a  large  majority  for  Napoleon 
as  the  greatest  Frenchman.  It  was  a  surprise 
when  the  vote  came  out  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  Louis  Pasteur  as  greater  than  any  king  or  gen- 
eral. Yet  Pasteur  spent  most  of  his  life  trying  to 
prove  to  conservative  doctors  and  scientists  who 
opposed  him  the  truth  which  was  later  to  revolu- 

iLuke  17:  33. 


THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS  121 

tionize  medical  practice  and  save  thousands  of 
lives.  Shall  we  never  learn  from  our  experience 
in  the  past  and  recognize,  while  they  are  still  liv- 
ing, the  men  and  women  who  teach  new  truth  even 
though  it  is  something  we  do  not  want  to  believe! 
When  shall  we  be  wise  enough  to  honor  those  who 
are  true  to  their  convictions  and  brave  enough  to 
hold  unpopular  opinions?  If  we  think  the  time 
has  already  come  when  freedom  of  speech  is  re- 
spected in  our  country,  then  we  have  only  to  re- 
member that  ever  since  the  war  orderly  meetings 
have  been  broken  up  by  men  who  were  organized 
to  uphold  law  and  order  and  to  encourage  loyalty 
to  our  American  Constitution.  Women  who  were 
to  speak  at  meetings  have  been  kidnaped  with  the 
connivance  of  leading  citizens.1  Our  Constitution 
provides  for  the  rights  of  free  speech,  free  press, 
and  free  assemblage.  But  the  majority  of  the 
public  have  allowed  such  incidents  to  go  unchal- 
lenged, because  we  do  not  really  believe  in  the  free 
expression  of  unpopular  opinions.  We  have  not 
yet  learned  to  respect  those  who  say  and  do  what 
they  think  is  right,  when  they  hold  views  that  do 
not  agree  with  our  own. 

While  there  are  men  who  will  give  themselves, 
in  spite  of  persecution,  for  the  truth  that  becomes 
later  the  common  heritage  of  all,  we  shall  see 
progress  toward  the  age  of  justice  on  earth.  But 
if  individuals  must  stand  alone  in  their  sacrifice, 
progress  will  always  be  slow.  When  a  group,  act- 
ing with  common  purpose,  will  lay  down  its  life 
for  the  sake  of  others,  the  world  will  see  the  has- 

i  Cf.  publications  of  the  American  Civil  Liberties  Union. 


122      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

tening  of  the  Kingdom  of  righteousness.  Such 
group  action  has  not  yet  been  seen,  though  there 
have  been  beginnings  that  might  have  had  great 
results.  For  example,  the  settlement  movement, 
when  it  first  began  in  England,  may  have  repre- 
sented the  effort  of  a  group,  who  had  enjoyed 
more  of  life  than  others,  to  give  up  the  privileges 
of  seclusion  and  protection  and  to  lay  down  its 
life  in  penitence  for  the  sins  that  had  made  divi- 
sions in  society.  But  the  sacrifice  was  not  far- 
reaching  enough  to  break  down  barriers ;  the  * '  suc- 
cessful" class  kept  its  security,  and  in  its  shel- 
tered position  did  not  share  the  experience  of  the 
majority  underneath.  Nor  has  the  working  class 
as  a  whole  lost  its  life  in  voluntary  surrender.  If 
the  poor  have  accepted  their  position  with  resig- 
nation and  with  proper  respect  for  their  "supe- 
riors," it  has  been  partly  due  to  the  teaching  of  the 
church  which  has  maintained  that  the  submission 
of  inferiors  to  those  above  them  was  a  Christian 
virtue.  But  such  acceptance  of  things  as  they  are 
is  not  the  purposeful  sacrifice  that  will  bring  in  a 
truer  justice. 

If  we  expect  sacrifice  in  any  group  we  should 
expect  it  of  the  Christian  Church.  "With  the  exam- 
ple of  a  master  who  trusted  his  followers  to  give 
themselves  for  others  as  He  had  given  Himself  for 
them,  it  should  be  impossible  for  Christians  to 
maintain  a  prosperous  church  in  the  midst  of  a 
suffering  world.  To  allow,  in  one  part  of  a  city, 
districts  which  have  been  described  as  "miles  of 
misery  and  squares  of  squalor,' '  while  in  another 
part  of  the  same  city  we  build  churches  in  which 


THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS  123 

the  poor  do  not  feel  at  home,  is  a  denial  of  our 
creed.  The  Church  of  Christ  should  be  identified 
with  the  poorest  and  the  simplest  people;  she 
should  be  pouring  out  her  life  not  in  the  charity 
that  reaches  down  a  hand  from  above  but  in  a  de- 
mand for  justice  that  might  mean  the  loss  of  her 
own  prosperity. 

The  nearest  approach  to  such  corporate  sacri- 
fice on  the  part  of  Christians  has  been  the  mis- 
sionary movement.1  Pioneers  left  houses,  breth- 
ren, sisters,  mothers,  fathers,  children  and  lands, 
for  the  sake  of  the  gospel.  Those  who  have  fol- 
lowed them  have  kept  something  of  their  spirit, 
though  the  life  of  the  modern  missionary  is  easy 
in  comparison  with  that  of  the  pioneer.  If  the 
church  at  home  had  expected  of  all  her  members 
a  sacrifice  equal  to  what  she  expected  of  her  rep- 
resentatives on  the  mission  field,  the  world  would 
have  believed  in  the  sincerity  of  her  profession. 
But  we  send  workers  to  the  Southern  mountains 
to  live  on  salaries  that  are  less  than  the  minimum 
required  for  subsistence,  and  then  we  forget  them.- 
Or  we  send  them  magazines  a  month  old  because^ 
they  cannot  afford  to  buy  the  reading  matter  that 
we  have  for  ourselves.  Or  we  pack  boxes  of 
articles  to  send  them,  when  they,  like  other  self-re- 
specting human  beings,  would  like  to  choose  for 
themselves,  if  not  in  shops  then  from  the  books  of 
mail-order  houses,  the  things  they  need.  And  the 
church  has  sent  men  and  women  into  the  foreign 
field  to  work  without  reinforcements.  She  expects 
an  American  doctor  in  China  to  do  what  a  dozen 

iMark  10:29. 


124      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

doctors  would  hardly  attempt  to  do  in  this  coun- 
try. She  expects  one  missionary  in  evangelistic 
work  to  solve  the  social  problems  of  a  whole  city 
in  Japan.  She  supports  her  missions  not  by  cast- 
ing in  all  that  she  has  but  by  giving  of  her  super- 
fluity. This  is  not  the  sacrifice  of  united  action, 
such  as  would  convince  the  world  of  the  reality  of 
her  faith  in  Christ.  But  it  is  not  yet  too  late. 
There  is  life  enough  in  the  Christian  Church  to 
rouse  the  sacrificial  spirit  in  her  members.  The 
opportunity  is  greater  than  ever  before.  The 
openings  in  every  missionary  district  at  home 
and  abroad  call  for  preachers,  teachers,  doctors, 
nurses,  and  trained  social  workers,  men  and 
women  with  vision  and  with  the  spirit  that  does 
not  look  for  recognition  or  reward. 

But  the  church  must  not  substitute  the  sacrifice 
of  her  missionaries  for  that  of  her  other  members. 
"Why  should  she  not  summon  all  who  claim  the 
name  of  Christian  to  a  great  conference  in  which 
she  shall  face  the  fundamental  problem  of  injus- 
tice? And  in  preparation  for  this  conference,  let 
her  call  upon  her  members  to  live  simply  without 
riches  and  without  property  power.  A  leading 
American  bishop  is  already  preaching  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  as  literally  applicable  to  our 
problems  now.  Christians  of  different  names  are 
so  troubled  about  the  possession  of  property  that 
they  are  giving  up  their  security  and  trying  to  live 
on  what  they  earn.  Let  these  groups  be  multi- 
plied, as  the  groups  of  believers  in  the  first  cen- 
tury were  enlarged  and  multiplied.  If  this  move- 
ment for  simplicity  is  purposeful  and  is  carried  on 


THE  MEASURE  OF  SUCCESS  125 

in  order  to  establish  justice,  it  may  cost  the 
church  more  than  she  has  ever  before  been  will- 
ing to  pay  for  her  ideals.  We  may  judge  by  the 
experience  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Canada. 
The  reports  on  social  service  adopted  by  the  gen- 
eral conference  of  Canadian  Methodists  are  as 
far-reaching  as  the  statements  of  any  Christians, 
and  have  already  resulted  in  the  withdrawal  of 
gifts  from  a  few  influential  men.  But  other  mem- 
bers of  the  church  have  come  forward  and  have 
made  up  the  deficit.  Even  if  the  deficit  had  not 
been  made  up,  that  Christian  communion  would 
have  found  its  life  by  losing  it.  The  capacity  for 
sacrifice  is  not  gone  from  the  church. 

As  we  look  forward  to  the  "World  Conference 
on  Faith  and  Order x  when  Christians  shall  dis- 
cuss in  fellowship  the  very  questions  that  have 
divided  them,  let  us  prepare  for  a  similar  world 
conference  on  social  justice.  If  a  commission  of 
one  communion,  in  the  spirit  of  penitence,  sug- 
gested that  others  should  meet  with  it  for  the  con- 
fession of  sins  and  for  the  adoption  of  a  code  of 
organic  ethics,  there  would  be  many  ready  to  ac- 
cept the  invitation.  As  a  result  of  the  conference, 
the  Christian  Church  might  find  herself  arrayed 
against  the  powers  that  be,  as  in  the  first  century. 
She  might  have  to  give  up  her  comfort,  her  beau- 
tiful buildings,  her  ceremonies,  and  conduct  her 
worship  once  more  in  dark  little  corners  of  the 
earth.    '  *  Christian"  might  again  become  a  danger- 

>  World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order.  Continuation  Com- 
mittee. SecV,  Robert  H.  Gardiner,  174  Water  St.,  Gardiner, 
Maine. 


126      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ous  word,  and  those  who  were  called  Christians 
might  be  persecuted  and  pnt  to  death.  But  there 
would  be  a  quickening  in  the  whole  Body  of  Christ. 
The  fire  and  enthusiasm  of  her  Leader  would  be 
revived,  and  the  church,  in  her  death,  would  find 
life. 


Questions  for  Discussion 

1.  Is  the  idea  of  stewardship  of  wealth  an  adequate  ex- 
pression of  Jesus'  teachings  on  riches?  If  not,  why 
not? 

2.  Prepare  an  outline  of  the  questions  that  should  be 
discussed  at  a  Christian  conference  on  social  justice 
and  of  the  statement  you  would  like  to  see  such  a 
conference  adopt.  Compare  your  statement  with 
The  Social  Creed  of  the  Churches. 


Chapter  Eight 

THE  RISEN  LIFE 

To  the  disciples  who  had  seen  Jesus  crucified 
and  apparently  defeated,  his  resurrection  bore 
witness  of  his  success.  In  a  flash  the  perspective 
of  the  world  shifted ;  suffering  and  death  became 
incidental;  our  relation  to  God  and  our  relations 
to  one  another  became  the  only  things  that  matter. 
The  timid  became  strong  in  the  vision  of  Christ's 
victory;  the  self-seeking  forgot  themselves  in  de- 
votion to  the  spread  of  his  Kingdom;  those  who 
had  added  temptation  and  sorrow  to  the  sufferings 
of  Jesus  through  their  worldly-mindedness  were 
now  joyous  in  the  face  of  persecution;  Jews  of 
intense  national  pride  preached  to  Gentiles  the 
victory  of  Jesus  who  was  crucified  and  rose  from 
the  dead. 
The  cross  and  the  resurrection  have  always 

;  been  inseparable  in  our  thoughts  of  Christ's  vic- 
tory, but  they  have  not  been  so  clearly  united  in 
our  interpretation  of  their  meaning  for  ourselves. 

i  The  church  unites  them  in  the  mystery  of  the 
sacrament,  when  the  presence  of  the  Risen  Lord 
comes  to  us  in  the  commemoration  of  his  death, 
but  insensibly  we  drift  into  the  comfort  of  assum- 

f  ing  that  we  can  share  the  privilege  of  the  risen 
presence  without  sharing  the  suffering  of  Christ's 

||  sacrifice.    But  Christ's  victory  began  long  before 

127 


128      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

his  soul  was  free  of  the  body.  In  his  first  struggle 
with  temptation  He  laid  the  foundation  of  success ; 
He  built  it  up  in  the  conflict  from  day  to  day 
through  his  unwavering  steadfastness  of  purpose 
and  method  in  the  face  of  apparent  failure;  and 
He  completed  it  on  the  cross.  The  resurrection 
does  not  mark  a  victory  that  conquered  defeat ;  it 
is  the  radiant  seal  of  a  victory  achieved  on  earth. 
The  collects  for  the  Easter  season1  should  re- 
mind us  that  we  cannot  live  by  a  mystical  expe- 
rience of  Christ's  presence  apart  from  the  doing 
of  that  which  is  right  from  day  to  day. 

And  in  a  world  that  is  yet  far  from  the  King- 
dom of  God  we  cannot  "die  daily  from  sin, 
' ' serve  God  in  pureness  of  living  and  truth/' 
"daily  endeavor  ourselves  to  follow  the  blessed 
steps  of  his  most  holy  life,"  "avoid  those  things 
that  are  contrary  to  our  profession  and  follow  all 
such  things  as  are  agreeable  to  the  same,"  and 
"think  those  things  that  are  good  and  by  thy  mer- 
ciful guiding  perform  the  same"  without  contin- 
ual conflict  with  the  standards  of  the  world.  Our 
conflict,  like  the  conflict  of  Jesus,  will  mean  suffer- 
ing and  disgrace  until  our  group  life  is  true  to  the 
highest  ideal  we  have  seen  for  the  individual. 
Industrial  units,  social  classes,  communities, 
churches,  nations,  are  still  far  from  expressing 
in  their  relations  the  principles  we  learn  from 
Jesus,  and  the  day  is  not  yet  when  our  conflict  can 
be  a  merely  interior  matter,  an  imaginative  shar- 
ing of  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 

iln  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  129 

The  self-governing  nation  is  the  largest  group 
that  the  race  has  learned  to  regard  as  an  ethical 
unit.  It  is  of  significance  to  Christians  as  the 
most  difficult  and  challenging  practice  ground  for 
the  application  of  the  principles  and  the  method 
of  Jesus.  In  the  nation  we  are  members  in  a 
group  made  up  of  opposing  classes  and  of  indi- 
viduals of  every  possible  sort.  The  fact  of  na- 
tional consciousness  is  by  itself  an  achievement, 
but  long  before  the  days  of  Jesus  the  race  had  ac- 
complished it.  The  individual  was  sacrificing  his 
life  for  the  life  of  the  group  in  the  earliest  stories 
that  have  come  down  to  us.  Slowly  we  are  begin- 
ning to  learn  that  we  cannot  rest  on  the  achieve- 
ment of  national  consciousness  but  that  the  qual- 
ity of  that  consciousness  is  important.  But  na- 
tions still  live  selfishly  and  each  in  its  dealings 
with  other  nations  defends  by  every  means  its  own 
security  and  pride.  The  ' '  second  Isaiah"  alone  in 
the  ancient  world  presented  a  different  national 
ideal.  He  seems  to  have  conceived  of  his  nation 
as  called  to  suffer,  to  be  despised  and  bruised  in 
loyalty  to  righteousness  in  the  midst  of  an  evil 
world.  Jesus  built  on  the  thought  of  vicarious 
suffering  not  only  in  relation  to  his  own  work  but 
in  relation  to  the  Jewish  people.  He  scored  their 
pride  and  exclusiveness ;  He  tried  to  make  them 
recognize  the  qualities  of  Gentiles;  He  laid  down 
principles  for  group  dealings  that  called  the  group 
to  the  exercise  of  the  same  great  qualities  that  He 
set  forth  for  individuals.  Not  only  has  no  nation 
hitherto  approached  the  way  of  Jesus  nor  even 
set  it  up  as  a  desirable  ideal,  but  only  a  few  Chris- 


130      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

tians  have  dreamed  of  a  nation  Christian  in  meek- 
ness, penitence,  and  love  of  other  nations,  and 
ready  to  die  without  armed  defense  rather  than  to 
swerve  from  its  quest  of  righteousness. 

Mingled  with  our  national  pride  and  our  use  of 
violence  and  corruption  for  national  defense,  cer- 
tain finer  qualities — faint  reflections  of  the  spirit 
of  Jesus — can  be  traced  in  the  ideals  of  modern 
nations.  Three  principles  akin  to  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  are  implicit  in  our  common  life  in  the  United 
States,  but  they  are  limited  and  perverted  in  their 
application.  Theoretically,  the  personality  of 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  is  respected;  the 
group,  whether  nation,  state,  or  community,  has  a 
responsibility  for  promoting  conditions  favorable 
to  health,  intelligence,  and  clean  living;  and  the 
nation  is  not  an  end  in  itself  but  finds  its  meaning 
in  relation  to  God's  purposes. 

But  do  we  respect  personality!  Every  adult  is 
guaranteed  by  our  Constitution  the  right  to  ex- 
press his  opinions,  to  publish  his  reasons  and  per- 
suade other  men  to  agree  with  him,  to  participate 
in  political  life  as  a  voter  and  a  candidate,  and  to 
be  considered  as  innocent  of  crime  until  his  guilt 
is  proved.  He  is  to  have  a  clear  field  for  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  But  actu- 
ally men  are  in  prison  for  their  opinions;  news- 
papers are  held  up  and  deprived  of  mailing  rights 
for  advocating  radical  changes  in  political  or 
economic  structure;  socialists  are  expelled  from 
legislative  bodies  after  election  by  unquestioned 
majorities;  Negroes  are  disfranchised  in  certain 
states,    and    leaders   of    unpopular    causes    are 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  131 

brought  to  trial  and  convicted  of  violent  crimes 
with  an  openly  malignant  spirit  in  the  prosecution 
and  the  acceptance  by  the  court  of  self-contradic- 
tory evidence.  In  industry,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
individual  wage-earner  is  no  longer  a  personality 
but  merely  a  hand  whose  opinions  and  responsi- 
bilities and  desires  are  disregarded  by  those  who 
control  his  working  life.  The  passing  of  the 
earlier  age  when  small  factories  were  multiplying, 
when  machinery  was  far  less  developed  and  initia- 
tive was  valued  in  the  man  underneath,  and  when 
the  opportunities  for  advancement  were  relatively 
numerous  and  the  discontented  wage-earner  could 
move  on  to  the  frontier  and  make  a  fresh  start, 
has  left  us  with  the  fiction  of  a  free  struggle  that 
respects  personality  because  there  is  opportunity 
for  all  to  develop.  But  this  fiction  is  a  dream  of 
the  past  which  misrepresents  the  highly  organ- 
ized, autocratic  industry  of  today.  We  cannot 
too  often  remind  ourselves  that  political  freedom 
is  also  a  fiction  when  it  tries  to  function  side  by 
side  with  autocracy  in  industry.  Experience  is 
teaching  us  the  folly  of  attempting  to  express  in 
political  life  a  respect  for  personality  while  we 
trample  on  personality  in  our  economic  life.  For 
the  habits  of  mind  fostered  during  the  working 
hours,  which  absorb  the  best  of  our  energy,  will 
be  a  stronger  influence  in  group  life  than  the 
ideals  of  which  we  talk  during  our  leisure. 

But  do  we  honestly  wish  the  free  development 
of  every  individual's  personality  1  Are  we  con- 
vinced that  no  group  life  is  sound  and  permanent 
in  which  a  few  dominate  and  compel  the  many  to 


132      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

submit?  Are  we  testing  the  impersonal  relations 
in  our  national  life  by  the  principles  of  Jesus? 
Do  we  in  our  own  relations  with  others  realize 
what  is  involved  in  respect  for  every  individual's 
personality?  It  is  difficult  to  welcome  disagree- 
ment, especially  by  those  who  persuasively  advo- 
cate what  seems  to  us  wrong;  to  be  firm  in  one's 
own  convictions  and  consistent  in  conduct  and  at 
the  same  time  genuinely  to  desire  the  truth  that 
one  learns  only  from  others ;  to  understand  and  to 
love  the  fine  qualities  in  those  whose  faults  are 
especially  apparent  to  us  and  to  know  every  one 
as  a  person  with  no  classifying  label  to  obscure 
his  motives  and  his  achievements;  to  con- 
sider the  essentials  of  wholesome  living  more  im- 
portant for  others  than  comforts  and  esthetic 
satisfactions  for  ourselves.  The  way  of  Jesus 
leads  us  to  just  such  a  practical  love  of  our  neigh- 
bors in  our  own  living  as  individuals  and  as  mem- 
bers of  the  nation.  It  calls  us  to  strive  for  such 
social  machinery  as  will  encourage  this  temper 
and  forbids  us  to  accept  economic  or  political 
power  that  contradicts  it. 

Our  group  ideals,  already  implicit  in  constitu- 
tions and  government,  call  us  to  the  greater  re- 
sponsibility of  promoting  conditions  favorable 
to  health,  intelligence,  and  clean  living.  Our 
freedom  is  not  merely  the  freedom  of  an  open 
struggle,  with  respect  and  a  fair  field  for  our  op- 
ponents, but  rather  a  freedom  of  mutual  service. 
Such  matters  as  schools  and  highways  and  the 
prevention  of  epidemics,  the  problem  of  prosti- 
tution, the  saving  of  infant  lives  and  the  training 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  |13S 

of  child  delinquents,  protection  from  fire  and  a 
standard  of  sanitation  for  factories  and  tenement 
dwellings  are  now  recognized  as  the  concern  of 
the  group.  The  community  has  begun,  in  rudi- 
mentary fashion  as  yet,  to  build  up  conditions  that 
develop  the  best  in  each  individual.  The  work  is 
in  its  earliest  stages,  hindered  by  the  class-con- 
sciousness of  the  rich,  limited  by  a  respect  for 
property  as  more  important  than  human  welfare, 
still  concerned  rather  with  the  elimination  of  cer- 
tain obvious  evils  than  with  constructive  plan- 
ning. But  the  principle  is  plainly  admitted  and 
the  tools  are  being  shaped  for  those  who  desire 
a  nation  that  thinks  and  is  physically  sound  and 
is  more  concerned  with  our  common  life  than  with 
self-indulgence. 

Jesus  thought  every  one  entitled  to  health;  He 
tried  to  illuminate  for  those  about  Him  the  great 
thoughts  of  the  Jewish  race  and  to  arouse  the 
power  of  reason;  He  realized  the  possibility  of 
good  in  those  who  have  grievously  sinned ;  and  by 
his  friendship  with  sinners  He  makes  us  think  of 
social  ostracism  and  the  coercion  of  criminals  as 
weapons  of  small  minds  or  of  a  group  uncertain 
of  its  own  moral  standards. 

Are  Christians  alive  to  the  problems  of  educa- 
tion today,  when  such  questions  as  freedom  of 
thought,  qualifications  of  teachers,  preparation 
for  community  life,  and  equality  of  opportunity 
for  all  children  of  all  classes  and  races,  are  con- 
fused by  partisan  struggles  and  the  determination 
of  those  now  in  power  to  teach  respect  for  them- 
selves as  the  first  duty  of  man?    To  what  prin- 


134      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

ciples  of  daily  living  are  Christian  parents  train- 
ing their  own  children?  Does  it  seem  to  ns  as 
intolerable  for  a  workingman's  child  as  it  would 
be  for  our  own  to  leave  school  at  sixteen  or 
yonnger  with  no  background  of  the  best  from  the 
past  and  no  training  to  do  well  something  that  is 
worth  doing?  Does  health  mean  to  us  merely 
keeping  ourselves  and  our  family  well  or  are  we 
equally  concerned  that  every  one  should  have  good 
food,  dry,  sunny  homes,  a  pleasant  place  to  work, 
good  medical  and  nursing  care  in  illness,  and 
happy  hours  of  out  of  doors?  Are  we  informed 
about  the  venereal  diseases  and  not  ashamed  to 
discuss  them  as  a  community  problem  ?  Are  Chris- 
tians taking  counsel  with  each  other  and  keeping 
abreast  of  modern  psychology  on  the  guidance  of 
their  children  in  sex  matters?  Do  we  really  be- 
lieve that  pure  living  is  equally  important  and 
equally  possible  for  men  and  for  women?  Are 
Christian  parents  doing  what  they  can  to  develop 
not  only  for  their  own  families  but  for  other 
young  people  athletics  and  hobbies  and  other  in- 
terests that  will  help  them  to  see  each  other  not 
solely  as  boy  and  girl  but  also  as  sharers  in  a 
common  life?  Are  we  realizing  how  monotony 
of  work  and  chronic  physical  fatigue  react  on  sex 
relations  ? 

But  the  field  is  too  wide  to  traverse  now.  The 
training  and  care  of  mental  defectives  and  the 
provision  for  adult  delinquents  and  other  prob- 
lems that  we  have  not  suggested  will  occur  to 
every  reader.  These  questions  sufficiently  remind 
us  how  as  followers  of  Jesus  we  are  challenged 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  135 

to  examine  our  own  standards  and  the  drift  of 
the  community  of  which  we  are  members.  Our 
social  life  as  distinct  from  our  economic  relations 
has  aroused  groups  of  people  of  all  creeds  and 
no  creed  to  associated  effort  to  improve  condi- 
tions. A  directory  of  the  most  important  organi- 
zations listed  in  The  Survey  shows  more  than 
twenty-five  attacking  specific  problems  on  a  na- 
tional scale.  In  addition,  the  great  private  foun- 
dations are  engaged  in  research  and  demonstra- 
tion on  various  points  involved.  Federal,  state, 
county,  and  municipal  services  have  been  organ- 
ized to  a  limited  extent.  The  churches  recognize 
the  improvement  of  social  conditions  as  part  of 
their  work  and  "social  service"  has  an  official 
place  in  church  bodies. 

But  there  are  certain  distinctive  contributions 
that  Christians  should  be  bringing  to  this  field. 
Jesus  has  taught  us  that  human  life  is  a  single 
whole.  Do  we,  his  followers,  when  we  approach 
the  problems  of  social  service,  analyze  the  con- 
ditions that  we  see  are  bad  in  education,  health, 
and  morals  in  their  relation  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  community  does  its  work  and 
earns  its  living!  If  we  are  loyal  to  the  way  of 
Jesus  we  shall  think  of  housing,  for  example,  as 
a  problem  of  providing  the  best  possible  dwell- 
ings for  all  human  beings,  and  the  " rights' '  of 
the  landlord  and  the  low  wages  of  the  father  will 
no  more  be  accepted  as  immutable  elements  in  the 
situation  than  the  ignorance  of  the  mother  and 
the  bad  drainage  and  leaky  roof  and  insufficient 
cubic  air  space  which  we  have  begun  trying  to 


136      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

change.  And,  again,  do  we  try  to  find  the  inner 
roots  of  each  problem?  We  know  that  conditions 
do  not  just  happen  but  result  in  the  long  run 
from  human  desires.  Problems  of  social  condi- 
tions with  which  the  community  is  wrestling  can 
be  traced  to  certain  qualities  in  our  life,  sins  in 
which  we  share  but  from  which,  as  Christians,  we 
must  be  cleansed  if  we  are  to  purify  the  group. 
Thus,  the  landlord  who  wants  profit  on  his 
houses  is  usually  no  better  and  no  worse  than 
any  one  who  expects  interest  on  private  savings. 
Every  employer  pays  the  smallest  wage  that  will 
buy  him  the  kind  of  labor  he  needs.  Profit  for 
ourselves  and  the  least  possible  for  others  is  the 
evil  principle  that  we  detect  as  a  main  factor  in 
this  problem  of  housing.  Do  we  yield  to  it  in 
our  own  dealings  ?  Or  are  we  earning  with  work 
and  not  with  investment  the  money  we  use  and 
paying  no  one  a  wage  so  small  that  it  compels  a 
standard  of  living  we  should  be  unwilling  to 
share  ? 

The  nation  is  committed  to  God.  Our  coins 
bear  his  name.  Our  legislative  bodies  open  their 
sessions  with  prayer.  Our  President  calls  the 
Bible  to  witness  to  his  intention  of  faithfulness 
in  office.  A  citizen  of  the  United  States  cannot  set 
the  things  of  Caesar  over  against  the  things  of 
God  as  claiming  a  separate  allegiance.  But  our 
corporate  consciousness  of  God  and  of  what  He 
desires  the  nation  to  be  is  still  rudimentary  and 
confused.  All  of  us,  Christians,  Jews,  agnostic 
idealists,  and  pagans,  probably  agree  that  a  na- 
tion has  personality,  a  group  character,  the  possi- 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  137 

bility  of  ethical  growth.  We  agree  that  the  nation 
has  an  inherent  responsibility  to  do  what  is  right, 
but  we  have  no  clear  agreement  as  to  what  is 
right.  We  agree  that  the  group  life  of  the  nation 
claims  an  allegiance  that  takes  precedence  of  our 
individual,  interests,  but  we  do  not  agree  as  to 
what  national  allegiance  involves. 

The  follower  of  Jesus  faces  this  confusion  of 
ideals  with  certain  guiding  principles  in  mind. 
God,  to  us,  is  the  loving  Father  of  all  mankind  to 
whom  all  persons  and  groups  within  each  nation, 
and  all  the  separate  nations  are  alike  members 
of  one  great  family.  Every  least  individual  mat- 
ters and  the  development  of  group  life  matters. 
But  the  groups  that  we  have  achieved  are  parts 
of  a  larger  whole  which  matters  more  than  the 
divided  groups  of  which  it  is  made  up  today. 
Alike  to  the  interior  life  of  a  nation  and  to  its 
international  dealings  the  Christian  applies  the 
same  tests  of  right  and  wrong  that  he  uses  in  his 
personal  dealings:  Does  it  unite  us  or  divide  us? 
Does  it  promote  or  hinder  in  individual  life  and 
in  group  life  the  distinctively  Christian  quali- 
ties? We  cannot  judge  lightly.  We  must  have 
all  the  facts  in  each  case  and  we  must  recognize 
the  difficulty  of  rinding  the  facts  in  the  deluge  of 
propaganda. 

Thus  in  the  great  political-economic  struggle  go- 
ing on  within  the  United  States,  in  which  the 
alignment  is  increasingly  clear  of  "open  shop" 
employers,  "100%  Americans/ '  and  other  defend- 
ers of  things  as  they  are  against  labor  unions  of 
various  kinds,   socialists,  communists,  social  in- 


138      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

vestigators,  liberals,  and  certain  small  groups  of 
Christians,  the  follower  of  Jesus  must  understand 
social  conditions  and  the  underlying  motives  and 
sins  as  Jesus  understood  them  in  the  simpler  con- 
flict in  Judea.  In  such  international  issues  as  the 
recognition  of  the  Russian  Republic,  the  relation 
of  the  United  States  to  Mexico,  and  our  military 
occupation  of  Haiti  and  Santo  Domingo,  it  is  even 
more  difficult  to  arrive  at  the  facts.  The  least 
that  we  can  do  is  to  study  fairly  all  we  can  find 
in  opposition  to  the  views  of  our  own  social  or 
business  group.  We  do  not  need  to  be  Chris- 
tians to  remember  that  each  country  is  entitled  to 
its  own  way  of  development;  that  the  rights  of 
investors  are  secondary  to  the  rights  of  wage- 
earners  ;  and  that  the  rights  of  investors  in  a  for- 
eign country  are  to  be  determined  by  that  country 
and  not  by  the  country  of  which  they  are  nation- 
als. But  as  Christians  we  shall  go  further  and 
desire  to  assist  and  to  have  our  nation  assist  (in 
so  far  as  one  nation  can  assist  another  without 
infringing  upon  its  independence)  the  develop- 
ment in  other  countries  of  relations  in  which  hu- 
man welfare  takes  precedence  of  profit. 

Again,  the  discussion  of  the  League  of  Nations 
is  confused  and  leaves  our  desire  for  a  genuinely 
international  viewpoint  bewildered.  Should  a 
Christian  support  it  or  oppose  it?  He  sees  in 
the  League  a  new  unit  to  which  individual  nations 
have  a  responsibility  and  this  seems  like  a  step 
toward  the  unity  of  the  human  race.  He  hears  it 
hailed  as  a  protection  from  future  wars,  and  such 
protection  seems  above  all  else  desirable.     But 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  139 

his  thoughts  return  to  those  old  sins — covetous- 
ness,  desire  for  power,  and  race  pride — which 
poison  the  life  of  his  own  nation  and  fill  him  with 
shame.  Does  the  League  of  Nations  mean  that 
financial  interests  are  organizing  internation- 
ally? Does  it  show  the  great  powers  standing 
together  to  dominate  the  world!  Does  it  perpet- 
uate the  alignments  of  the  Great  War  and  retain 
the  right  forever  to  exclude  certain  nations  from 
its  membership?  Does  it  play  with  the  thought 
of  disarmament  while  it  continues  to  assume  the 
principle  of  national  defense?  If  he  finds — as 
many  Christians  do — that  the  League  of  Nations 
organizes  on  a  larger  scale  certain  of  the  most 
menacing  qualities  in  the  life  of  each  member 
nation  he  will  oppose  it.  For  his  tests  of  right 
and  wrong  in  group  relations  include  not  only: 
Does  it  unite  or  divide  us?  but,  Does  it  promote 
or  hinder  the  distinctively  Christian  qualities? 

The  Christian's  ideal  for  his  nation  and  his  in- 
terpretation of  right  and  wrong  in  the  concrete 
issues  that  arise  will  frequently  involve  opposi- 
tion to  the  expressed  will  of  the  majority.  With 
other  idealists,  therefore,  he  must  do  clear  think- 
ing about  his  duty  as  a  loyal  citizen  of  the  nation. 
Must  he  obey  laws  that  he  considers  wrong? 
Does  the  importance  of  group  life,  as  a  step  to- 
ward the  ideal  of  human  unity,  involve  subor- 
dination of  individual  standards  to  the  standards 
of  the  group?  To  the  Christian,  his  nation  is  a 
living  unit  in  process  of  development  toward  a 
group  personality  which  will  embody  the  qualities 
of  Jesus.    Selfish  purposes  of  any  individual  or 


140       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

of  any  group  within  the  nation  yield  to  the  ex- 
pressed will  of  the  larger  group.  The  Christian 
is  never  a  law-breaker  for  his  own  advantage ;  he 
does  not  get  liquor  in  a  prohibition  country;  he 
does  not  falsify  his  tax  returns;  he  seeks  no  ex- 
emptions for  his  church  nor  his  class  but  desires 
the  same  law  for  Christian  and  unbeliever,  for 
rich  and  poor,  for  colored  man  and  for  white  man. 
But  where,  in  his  judgment,  laws  are  unjust  he 
will  work  openly  and  fairly  for  their  amendment ; 
where  his  conscience  forbids  him  to  obey  them 
he  will  refuse  publicly  and  will  not  attempt  to 
evade  such  punishment  as  the  group  chooses  to 
require.  The  fact  that  laws  or  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  may  seem  to  represent  the  will  of 
some  powerful  minority  and  not  the  will  of  the 
majority  which  theoretically  our  government 
expresses,  will  not  change  the  Christian's  deter- 
mination to  obey  the  law  when  selfish  interest 
would  object  and  publicly  to  refuse  conformity 
and  to  suffer  the  consequences  when  an  issue  of 
right  or  wrong  is  involved.  For  the  development 
of  higher  ethical  standards  in  the  nation  requires 
no  blind  obedience  to  the  present  will  of  the  group 
but  a  constant  effort  by  every  citizen  to  lead  the 
group  toward  the  best  that  he  sees. 

The  sharpest  conflict  between  the  citizen  and 
the  nation  will  arise  in  questions  of  national 
" honor,' '  national  defense,  and  military  neces- 
sity. The  Christian  will  never  confuse  the  wishes 
of  American  investors  in  a  foreign  countiy  or  the 
claims  of  American  bankers  who  have  made  loans 
to  foreign  governments  with  attacks  that  threaten 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  141 

the  essential  life  of  the  United  States.  He  is  not 
misled  by  propaganda  that  uses  patriotism  as  a 
cloak  for  financial  gain,  and  he  counters  it  with 
all  the  intelligence  and  persistence  he  can  muster. 
But  if  he  is  convinced  that  the  life  of  the  nation 
is  at  stake,  or  if  the  country  is  actually  involved 
in  war,  does  he  conform  to  the  national  will? 
Does  he  defend  the  nation's  life  with  the  best  he 
can  give  to  war?  Does  he  give  his  own  life  while 
he  kills  his  nation's  enemies?  Or  does  he  see  for 
his  nation  a  way  that  is  greater  than  war?  Is 
there  not  truth  for  the  nation  as  well  as  for  the 
individual  in  the  way  of  Jesus,  suffering  without 
retaliation,  doing  good  to  those  who  would  injure 
us,  penitent  for  our  sins  and  seeing  the  best  in  our 
enemies,  members  of  the  human  family  seeking  the 
good  of  the  race  by  service  unto  death  if  need  be 
and  never  by  domination?  If  a  Christian  sees 
this  challenge  to  the  spiritual  greatness  of  his 
nation,  which  loyalty  shall  he  follow, — defense  of 
the  nation's  pride  and  worldly  power,  or  defense 
of  the  ideal  to  which  he  would  call  the  nation? 
The  idealist  who  refuses  to  participate  in  war 
does  not  seek  to  evade  the  consequences.  He 
faces  "the  punishment  that  the  nation  inevitably 
requires  so  long  as  the  majority  place  national 
defense  above  the  quality  of  the  national  life. 
But  the  Christian  who  believes  that  in  time  of 
war  he  must  silence  his  conscience  and  close  his 
eyes  to  a  distant  ideal  at  least  respects  the  prin- 
ciples of  those  who  refuse  to  fight  and  does  not 
join  in  heaping  abuse  upon  them. 

During  the  Great  War,  individual  Christians 


142      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

were  not  the  only  men  whose  consciences  forbade 
them  to  fight.  Others  also  have  a  sense  of  inter- 
national unity  that  seemed  to  them  a  higher  loy- 
alty than  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  the  United 
States  Government.  In  the  main  they  are  social 
radicals,  and  this  fact  has,  to  the  continuing 
shame  of  our  nation,  been  allowed  to  aggravate 
the  severity  of  their  punishment. 

And  others,  who  profess  neither  Christianity 
nor  radical  social  beliefs,  are  now  joining  the 
despised  pacifists  in  an  effort  to  bring  home  to 
the  nation  the  folly  and  suicidal  waste  of  war. 
They  are  showing  us  the  economic  losses  of  the 
victorious  nations;  they  are  pointing  out  the 
losses  in  democracy  from  which  we  have  not  yet 
begun  to  recover;  they  count  up  the  loss  to  the 
human  race,  with  much  of  the  most  vigorous 
stock  in  every  nation  killed  before  it  has  begotten 
children  and  with  the  physical  degeneration  of 
whole  peoples  inevitably  resulting  from  lack  of 
food.  They  tell  us  of  the  scientific  research  that 
every  great  power  is  now  conducting  to  learn 
wholesale  methods  of  killing  which  will  replace 
the  "small"  killings  of  the  Great  War.  But  will 
the  fact  that  the  next  war  would  wipe  out  whole 
cities  and  peoples  and  nations  by  itself  make  the 
"next  war"  impossible  so  long  as  the  old  motives 
remain?  How  can  we  use  the  present  to  learn 
the  things  that  belong  to  peace?  The  generation 
that  has  experienced  the  horrors  of  war  will  pass, 
the  waste  of  life  and  common  wealth  will  be  for- 
gotten, some  new  call  to  a  great  ideal  will  be 
sounded  to  deafen  our  ears  so  they  will  not  recog- 


THE  RISEN  LIFE  145 

nize  the  evil  voices  of  greed,  domination,  and  race 
prejudice.  Unless  as  individuals  and  nations  we 
depart  from  the  path  of  pride  and  self-aggran- 
dizement the  new  war  will  come.  The  nation  will 
be  destroyed  because  it  sought  to  serve  itself  in- 
stead of  serving  the  life  of  the  race. 

But  the  Christian  does  not  despair  of  trans- 
forming his  nation.  This  threatening  cataclysm 
of  the  next  war,  that  seems  an  impersonal,  irre- 
sistible tragedy,  arises  from  the  familiar  evils 
whose  roots  he  sees  in  himself.  To  it  he  opposes 
a  determination  to  live  for  service  and  not  for 
profit,  to  lead  only  as  his  leadership  is  sought  and 
never  to  control  the  wills  of  others,  and  to  find  his 
neighbors  beyond  the  bounds  of  class  or  race  or 
nation.  He  seeks  not  only  to  contribute  all  his 
intelligence  and  enthusiasm  and  personal  effort 
to  the  reconstruction  of  our  economic  order  on  the 
basis  of  mutual  service  and  regard  for  human 
welfare,  but  he  finds  and  cooperates  with  groups 
and  parties  of  whatever  name  who  desire  the  end 
that  he  desires;  and  he  brings  to  their  councils 
the  truth  he  has  learned  from  Jesus  that  the 
means  employed  to  accomplish  a  social  change 
must  foster  the  qualities  on  which  the  success  of 
the  new  social  structure  will  depend.  He  empha- 
sizes the  importance  of  economic  relations  as  the 
strategic  point  from  which  to  purify  national  and 
international  life,  because  he  knows  that  the  qual- 
ities demanded  for  a  man's  working  hours  color 
his  ethical  code  in  other  relationships. 

But  he  will  contribute  to  the  conflict  more  than 
a  method.    He  sees  with  a  unique  perspective  the 


144       JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

victory  won  for  the  race  by  every  man  who  is 
loyal  to  the  best  that  he  knows.  He  has  learned 
from  his  crucified  and  risen  Lord  that  a  life  given 
to  the  love  of  God  and  one's  neighbor  is  stronger 
than  evil  because  it  is  an  instrument  of  the  eter- 
nal purpose  of  God.  He  brings  a  spirit  that  has 
learned  from  the  sacrament  the  mystery  of 
Christ's  presence  with  those  who  share  in  their 
own  lives  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  And  he  longs 
for  the  day  when  he  can  point  to  the  way  of  the 
Christian  Church  to  show  that  the  true  life  of  a 
group,  like  the  life  of  an  individual,  is  found  in 
forgetfulness  of  self,  in  humility  and  penitence, 
and  in  willingness  to  suffer  rather  than  be  untrue 
to  the  quest  of  righteousness  to  which  we  are 
called. 

Questions  for  Discussion 

1.  Find  out  the  real  issue  and  the  arguments  on  both 
sides  in  some  industrial  dispute  now  going  on. 
Which  side  would  you  like  to  see  win  in  the  struggle, 
and  why? 

2.  What  immediate  steps  can  you  suggest  for  the  pre- 
vention of  violence  in  industrial  disputes? 

3.  WThat  national  sins  call  for  the  repentance  of  our 

country  today? 

4.  How  would  you  phrase  a  Christian  definition  of 
patriotism  ? 


APPENDIX 

SUGGESTIONS    FOR    STUDY    GROUPS 

A  group  using  this  as  text-book  should  plan  for  at 
least  nine  sessions,  in  order  that  the  discussion  of  each 
of  the  eight  chapters  may  follow  a  week  of  preparation. 
The  group  should  have  at  hand  several  copies  of  The 
New  Social  Order,  by  the  Reverend  Harry  F.  Ward,  and 
at  least  one  copy  of  The  Untried  Door,  by  the  Reverend 
Richard  Roberts.  It  is  desirable  that  every  member  of 
the  group  should  read  these  two  books  before  the  closing 
session. 

The  studies  are  based  on  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  It 
would  be  helpful  for  those  who  wish  to  study  the  several 
versions  of  incidents  or  parables  used  in  the  studies  to 
have  A  Harmony  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  by  Professors 
Burton  and  Goodspeed  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 

The  aims  given  below  may  be  of  assistance  to  leaders 
of  study  groups  in  guiding  the  discussion  of  the  several 
chapters.  Questions  suggested  for  discussion  are  found 
at  the  close  of  each  chapter.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  general  aim  of  the  studies  is  given  in  the 
preface. 

Chapter  One 

Aim:  To  compare  the  social  and  economic  problems  to 
which  Jesus  came  in  Palestine  with  the  social  and 
economic  problems  today. 

Suggested  Heading: 

.Ward,  Harry  P.  "The  New  Social  Order."  The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York.  1920.  Chap- 
ter 1. 

145 


146      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Scott,  Ernest  F.  "The  Kingdom  and  the  Mes- 
siah.'*  T.  and  T.  Clark,  Edinburgh.  1911. 
Chapters  1,  2,  and  3. 

Also, 

Mathews,  Shailer.  "A  History  of  New  Testament 
Times  in  Palestine.' '  The  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York.     1904.     Chapters  12  and  13. 

Roberts,  Richard.  "The  Untried  Door."  The 
Womans  Press,  New  York.    1921.    Chapter  1. 


Chapter  Two 

Aim:  To  test  our  standards  of  family  life  by  the  home 
at  Nazareth,  first,  in  relation  to  material  comfort, 
and,  second,  in  relation  to  preparation  for  adult 
life  in  the  community. 

Suggested  Reading: 

Ward.     "The  New  Social  Order."    Chapter  2. 

Coe,  George  Albert.  "A  Social  Theory  of  Reli- 
gious Education."  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
New  York.  1917.  Especially  chapter  on  The 
Family. 

rAlso, 

Glover,  T.  R.  "The  Jesus  of  History."  The  Asso- 
ciation Press,  New  York.  1917.  Chapters  2 
and  3. 


Chapter  Three 

Aim:  To  test  our  industrial  relations  by  principles 
shown  in  the  decisions  of  Jesus  and  in  his  way  of 
life. 

Suggested  Reading: 

Ward.     "The  New  Social  Order."     Chapters  3,  4 
and  5. 


APPENDIX  147 

Archbishops'  Fifth  Committee  of  Inquiry. 
"Christianity  and  Industrial  Problems. "  So- 
ciety for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  Lon- 
don. 1919.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New 
York. 

Interchurch  "World  Movement  Report  on  the 
Steel  Strike  of  1919.  Har court,  Brace,  and 
Company,  New  York.    1920. 

Parker,  Carleton.  l '  The  Casual  Laborer  and  other 
Essays.' '  Harcourt,  Brace,  and  Company,  New 
York.     1920. 

Rathenau,  Walther.  "The  New  Society."  Har- 
court, Brace,  and  Company,  New  York.  1921. 
Chapter  11. 

Tawney,  R.  H.     "The  Acquisitive  Society."    Har- 
court, Brace,  and  Company,  New  York.    1920. 
Also, 

"By  an  Unknown  Disciple."  George  H.  Doran 
Company,  New  York.     1919. 

Chapter  Four 

Aim:  To  test  our  relations  with  those  of  a  different  class 
by  the  qualities  taught  by  Jesus  as  essential  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Suggested  Beading: 

Ward.     "The  New  Social  Order."     Chapter  6. 
Scott.     "The  Kingdom  and  the  Messiah."     Chap- 
ter 4. 
Roberts.     "The  Untried  Door." 
Tawney.    "The  Acquisitive  Society." 

Chapter  Five 

Aim:  In  the  light  of  the  conflict  of  Jesus  with  accepted 
standards,  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  con- 
flict inevitable  for  his  followers  today. 

Suggested  Beading: 

Ward.    "The    New    Social    Order."      Chapters    7 
and  8. 


148      JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  WORLD  TODAY 

Foster,  William  Z.    "The  Great  Steel  Strike  and 
its  Lessons."    B.  W.  Huebsch,  New  York.     1920. 
Roberts.     "The  Untried  Door." 

Also, 

Karsner,  David.  "Debs."  Boni  and  Liveright, 
New  York.     1919.     Especially  speeches  of  Debs. 

Chapter  Six 

Aim:  To  learn  from  the  prayers  of  Jesus  the  content 
of  true  Christian  prayer. 

Suggested  Reading: 

Ward.    "  The  New  Social  Order. "    Chapter  10. 
Roberts.     "The  Untried  Door." 

'Also, 

Brent,  Charles  H.  "With  God  in  the  World." 
George  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.,  Philadelphia. 

Mott,  John  R.  "Intercessors  the  Primary  Need." 
The  Association  Press,  New  York.     1910. 

Scudder,  Vida  D.  "Social  Teachings  of  the  Chris- 
tian Year."  E.  P.  Dutton  and  Company,  New 
York.     1921. 

Chapter  Seven 

Aim:  To  test  by  the  death  of  Jesus  our  idea  of  success 
and  our  willingness,  as  individuals  and  as  churches, 
to  pay  the  price  of  Christian  ideals. 

Suggested  Beading: 

Ward.     "The  New  Social  Order."    Chapter  11. 
Scott.     "The  Kingdom  and  the  Messiah."     Chap- 
ter 8. 

Chapter  Eight 

Aim:  To  find  the  implications  of  our  faith  in  the  risen 
life  of  Jesus  and  the  unfailing  power  of  love,  in 
relation  to  our  life  as  citizens  of  the  United  States. 


APPENDIX  149 

Suggested  Reading: 

Ward.    "The  New  Social  Order/ '    Chapters  9  and 

12. 
Irwin,   Will.    "The  Next  War."    E.   P.   Dutton 

and  Company,  New  York.    1921. 

Also, 

Brailsford,   Henry  N.    "The  War  of   Steel  and 

Gold."     G.  Bell  and  Sons,  Ltd.,  London.    First 

published  in  1914. 
Page,  Kirbt.     "The  Sword  or  the  Cross."     George 

H.  Doran  Company,  New  York,  1922. 


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